串珠毛冷水花 chuan zhu mao leng shui hua

Pilea producta Blume, p.p.

Herbs perennial, stoloniferous, dioecious. Stems erect, ca. 40 cm tall, succulent distally; stems, petioles, and both surfaces of leaf blade densely covered with multicellular hairs. Stipules deciduous; petiole strongly unequal in length; the longer one 1-1.5 cm; the shorter one subsessile; leaf blade brownish when dry, the major one oblong-ovate, strongly unequal in shape and size; 6-8 × 3.5-4.5 cm, herbaceous, 3-veined, lateral veins many, regularly transverse, cystoliths minute, shortly fusiform, inconspicuous, base cordate, margin serrate, apex acuminate; the minor one broadly ovate to cordate, 2-4 × 1-2.8 cm, base deeply cordate, almost around stem, apex shortly acuminate or acute. Male inflorescence subspicate, few branched, 5-7 cm, flowers densely arranged along 1 side of axis; female inflorescence a cymose panicle, much branched, to 10 cm. Male flowers minute, ca. 1 mm; perianth lobes 4, apex acute; stamens 4; rudimentary ovary minute. Female abaxial perianth lobe hooded, 1/2 as long as achene, lateral 2 lobes triangular-ovate, ca. 1/3 as long as abaxial lobe, membranous. Achene ovoid, ca. 1 mm, slightly compressed, slightly oblique, smooth, sometimes inconspicuously verrucose, enclosed by persistent perianth. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

* Shaded moist places in forests, near streams; ca. 2900 m. NW Yunnan.

Other syntype material of Pilea producta belongs to the previous species, P. umbrosa.