镰叶冷水花 lian ye leng shui hua

Herbs perennial, stoloniferous, glabrous, monoecious or dioecious. Stems blue green when dry, 20-60 cm tall, woody at base, succulent distally, swollen between nodes. Stipules persistent; triangular to oblong, 2-5 mm, membranous, petiole strongly unequal in length, 0-4 cm; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially often blue-green, falcate-lanceolate rarely ovate-lanceolate, usually asymmetric, unequal in size, (2.5-)5-14 × (1-)1.5-5 cm, membranous, 3-veined, lateral veins many, transverse, abaxial surface sometimes puberulent along veins, adaxial surface sparsely pilose, cystoliths fusiform often conspicuous, base emarginate or subcordate, margin sharply serrate or shallowly serrate, acumen serrulate, apex long caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences solitary, male a paniculate cyme, 2-7 cm; pedunculate, female inflorescence 1.5-4 cm, peduncle 1-3 cm. Male flowers subsessile, in bud ca. 1 mm; perianth lobes 4, oblong-elliptic, apex acute; stamens 4; rudimentary ovary minute. Female flowers subsessile, in bud ca. 0.8 mm; perianth lobes connate at base, subequal, abaxial lobe larger, subapically corniculate; staminodes 3, scale-like, oblong. Achene brownish, broadly ovoid, ca. 1 mm, compressed, not oblique, smooth, enclosed by unequal perianth lobes. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Sep-Oct.

Shaded wet places of Pinus forests, roadsides; 1000-2800(-3400) m. N Guangxi, Hunan, W Jiangxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [N Thailand].