美叶雾水葛 mei ye wu shui ge

Pouzolzia argenteonitida W. T. Wang; P. ovalis var. fulgens Weddell; P. sanguinea (Blume) Merrill var. fulgens (Weddell) Hara.

Shrubs 1.5-4 m tall; branchlets densely appressed or, sometimes, patently strigose, seldom lateral superior shoots leafless, but with some glomerules at nodes. Leaves alternate; stipules lanceolate, 5-7 mm; petiole 0.4-1.6 cm; leaf blade lanceolate, rarely narrowly ovate, 2.5-13 × 0.7-4(-5) cm, papery, secondary veins 2 or 3 each side of midvein toward apex, abaxial surface silvery tomentose, densely appressed sericeous with strigose hairs on veins, adaxial surface glabrous or subglabrous, base cuneate or obtuse, margin (4-)8-18(-37)-dentate, apex acuminate to cuspidate. Glomerules unisexual or bisexual, 3-8 mm in diam.; bracts narrowly ovate or triangular, 0.6-2 mm; female glomerules without spinescent bracts. Male flowers: perianth lobes 4, connate 1/2 of length, strigose, apex acute to cuspidate. Female perianth tube fusiform or obovoid, 1-1.2 mm, ca. 2 mm in fruit, pubescent, inconspicuously ribbed, 3-toothed. Achenes gray-brown, ovoid or subellipsoid, slightly compressed, 1-1.2 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.

Evergreen, broad-leaved forests, thickets, valleys; 1600-2800 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Myanmar, Nepal].

This species and Pouzolzia sanguinea differ clearly in leaf indumentum (as indicated in the key) and merit the rank of distinct species. Pouzolzia calophylla is variable in trichomes on branchlets, number of teeth on leaf margins, and veins on the abaxial leaf surface. It seems, therefore, impossible to maintain P. argenteonitida, which is treated here as a synonym.