雪毡雾水葛 xue zhan wu shui ge

Pouzolzia spinosobracteata W. T. Wang.

Shrubs 2-4 m tall; branchlets sparsely strigose. Leaves alternate; stipules lanceolate, 6-9 mm, ciliate; petiole 0.6-1.2 cm; leaf blade narrowly ovate or narrowly elliptic, 8.5-14 × 3-6.2 cm, thinly papery, secondary veins 2 apical pairs, abaxial surface densely snow white tomentose, adaxial surface glabrous or subglabrous, base rounded or obtuse, margin denticulate, apex shortly acuminate or acute. Glomerules unisexual or bisexual, 7-9 mm in diam.; female glomerules 2-4 mm, in fruit 10-14 mm in diam.; bracts ovate, ca. 1 mm, membranous. Male flowers: pedicel 1.5-3 mm; perianth lobes 3, connate to middle, strigose, apex hornlike, cuspidate; some undeveloped male flowers and especially their pedicels in mature glomerules specialized into aculei, unequal, 3-12 mm, puberulent. Female perianth tube fusiform, narrowly ovoid, ca. 1.6 mm, ca. 2.2 mm in fruit, pubescent, 3-ribbed, 3-toothed. Achenes brown, narrowly ovoid, slightly compressed, 2-2.2 mm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.

* Thickets, dry valleys; 300-1300 m. S Sichuan, N Yunnan.

We believe that Pouzolzia spinosobracteata is based on material which developed abnormally because of insect damage.