土荆芥 tu jing jie

Chenopodium ambrosioides Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 219. 1753; Ambrina ambrosioides (Linnaeus) Spach, nom. illeg.; Atriplex ambrosioides (Linnaeus) Crantz; Blitum ambrosioides (Linnaeus) G. Beck.

Herbs annual or perennial, 50-80 cm tall, with strong odor. Stem erect, much branched, striate, obtusely ribbed; branches usually slender, pubescent and articulated villous, sometimes subglabrous. Petiole short; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, abaxially with scattered glands, slightly hairy around veins, adaxially glabrous, base attenuate, margin sparsely and irregularly coarsely serrate, apex acute or acuminate; lower leaves ca. 15 × 5 cm, upper ones gradually reduced and margin subentire. Flowers borne in upper leaf axils, usually 3-5 per glomerule, bisexual and female. Perianth segments (3 or)5, usually nearly closed in fruit. Stamens 5; anthers ca. 0.5 mm. Style obscure; stigmas 3(or 4), filiform, exserted from perianth. Utricle enclosed by perianth, depressed globose. Seed horizontal or oblique, black or dark red, sublustrous, ca. 0.7 mm in diam., glabrous, rim margin obtuse. Fl. and fr. over a lengthy period.

Naturalized; often cultivated for medicine in N China. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [native to tropical America; now widely naturalized in tropical, subtropical, and warm-temperate regions of the world].

Dysphania ambrosioides s.l. is a taxonomically complicated aggregate of several closely related segregate “microspecies” and/or infraspecific taxa. Judging from the herbarium material available, there are several entities naturalized in China. However, their taxonomy and distribution in the Flora area are not well understood, and because of that they are not discussed here.