小芫花 xiao yuan hua

Shrublets, ca. 0.2 m tall, branching dichotomous, trichotomous, or whorled. Branches brown, ± glossy, slender, glabrous. Leaves alternate; petiole very short; leaf blade oblong or oblong-lanceolate, rarely obovate-oblong, 1.5-2.5 × 0.7-1(-1.4) cm, thickly papery, both surfaces glabrous, base cuneate, apex rounded-emarginate. Inflorescences terminal, capitate, 5-8-flowered; bracts soon caducous, ovate-oblong, ca. 1 mm, margin ciliate toward apex. Pedicel ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Calyx white; tube cylindric-urceolate, ca. 3 × 1.5 mm, exterior glabrous; lobes 4, broadly ovate, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm, 2 lobes with apex obtuse, alternating with 2 others with apex mucronate. Stamens 8, lower whorl inserted below middle of calyx tube, upper whorl near middle; filament shorter than anther; anthers narrowly oblong, ca. 0.5 mm, base emarginate, apex mucronate. Disk annular, very narrow. Ovary cylindric-ovoid, ca. 2 × 0.7 mm, glabrous; style absent; stigma flattened-globose, slightly lobed. Drupe ovoid-apiculate, ca. 4 × 2 mm. Fl. and fr. Sep.

● E Taiwan (Hualian).