星花草 xing hua cao

Cephalostigma hookeri C. B. Clarke in J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 3: 429. 1881.

Herbs, annual. Stems erect, 8-20 cm tall, sparsely villous, dichotomously branched. Leaves shortly petiolate; blade ovate or ovate-elliptic, ca. 2.5 × 1.2 cm, base and apex obtuse, margin denticulate. Cymes in large and lax panicles; bracts small; pedicels slender, up to 2 cm. Calyx ca. 1.5 mm; tube obconical; lobes triangular, ca. 0.5 mm. Corolla blue, 5-divided to near base; lobes spreading, starlike, linear-elliptic, 2-3 mm. Stamens ca. 1.5 mm. Style almost equal to corolla in length. Capsule subglobose, ca. 3 mm in diam., 2-locular. Seeds small, broadly ellipsoid, 3-ribbed. Fl. Nov.

Sunny slopes in moist ravines; 1300-1400 m. S Yunnan (Menghai) [E India, Indonesia (Java), N Thailand; Africa].