中间型冷水花 zhong jian xing leng shui hua

Herbs perennial, stoloniferous, glabrous, monoecious or dioecious. Stems blue-green when dry, erect or ascending, much branched, 20-40 cm tall, succulent, swollen between nodes. Stipules almost persistent, triangular, 1-2 mm, membranous; petiole subequal in length, 0.5-3 cm; leaf blade gray-green on both surfaces, broadly elliptic or rhombic-orbicular, subequal in size, 2-5 × 1.5-3 cm, thinly papery, 3-veined, lateral veins 5-7 each side, even and inconspicuous on both surfaces, honeycombed abaxially, cystoliths fusiform, often conspicuous adaxially, base broadly cuneate, subrounded or obtuse, often with small auricle, margin entire, apex shortly caudate-acuminate or acute. Inflorescences solitary; male glomerules in moniliform racemes, 2-5 cm, thinly pedunculate; female inflorescence capitate, shortly pedunculate, ca. 5 mm. Male flowers pedicellate, in bud obovoid, ca. 1.5 mm; perianth lobes 4, connate 1/2 of length, subapically corniculate; stamens 4(or 5); rudimentary ovary conspicuous. Female perianth lobes unequal, longest lobe with apex acute, subapically corniculate. Achene obliquely subglobose, ca. 0.4 mm, slightly compressed, indistinctly verrucose, enclosed by persistent perianth. Fl. Mar-Jun, fr. May-Jul.

* Shaded moist places, rocks; 100-900 m. NW Guangxi, SW Guizhou, SE and W Yunnan.

This species resembles Pilea boniana and P. plataniflora in habit and floral morphology, and is probably a hybrid between them.