白马骨 bai ma gu

Democritea serissoides Candolle, Prodr. 4: 540. 1830; Leptodermis nervosa Hutchinson; Serissa democritea Baillon, nom. illeg. superfl.

Small shrubs, to 1 m tall; branches stout, subterete, gray, pilosulous to glabrescent or puberulent. Leaves usually in clusters, subsessile; blade drying thinly papery, obovate or oblanceolate, 1.5-4 × 0.7-1.3 cm, glabrous except sparsely pubescent abaxially, base acute, apex acute or subacute; secondary veins 2 or 3 pairs; stipules with lobes subulate, ca. 2 mm, broad at base, sparsely pubescent. Flowers solitary to usually several; bracts membranous, elliptic, ca. 6 mm, long acuminate, sparsely ciliolate. Calyx glabrescent; ovary portion obconic, ca. 1 mm; limb lobed essentially to base; lobes 5, lanceolate-subulate, ca. 4 mm, sharply acute, ciliate. Corolla outside glabrous; tube ca. 4 mm; lobes 5, oblong-lanceolate, ca. 2.5 mm. Fruit not seen. Fl. Apr-Jun.

Wastelands, lawns. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Japan].

W. C. Ko (in FRPS 71(2): 162. 1999) reported this species also from Japan, but the Fl. Japan (3a: 228-229. 1993) did not recognize it.