少花冷水花 shao hua leng shui hua

Herbs annual, weak, subglabrous, monoecious, rarely dioecious. Stems erect, simple or branched, thin, 5-20 cm tall, 1-2.5 mm in diam., succulent. Stipules persistent, light green, suborbicular or subcordate, 2.5-4 mm, thinly membranous, apex rounded; petiole subequal in length, thin, 0.5-2.6 cm, sparsely puberulent adaxially; leaf blade broadly ovate, subequal in size, 0.8-4 × 0.6-3 cm, membranous, 3-veined, lateral veins several, inconspicuous, adaxial surface sparsely pilose, cystoliths minute, base often broadly cuneate or obtuse, margin bluntly 3-5(-7)-crenate, apex obtuse, rarely acute. proximal leaves often smaller, entire. Inflorescences often androgynous, solitary, from almost every node, a cluster or scorpioid cyme, subsessile, few flowered. Male flowers pedicellate, in bud obovoid, 0.4-0.6 mm; perianth lobes 2, hooded, connate at base, subapically corniculate; stamens 2; rudimentary ovary inconspicuous. Female perianth lobes free, very unequal, abaxial lobe longest, hooded, subapically long corniculate, in fruit as long as achene, lateral lobes triangular, quite small, 1/10 as long as abaxial lobe, membranous; staminodes minute, oblong. Achene brownish, triangular-ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, compressed, attenuate, smooth. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.

* Shaded moist places in forests, by marshes; 2100-2800 m. C and S Gansu, NW Sichuan.