阳春秋海棠 yang chun qiu hai tang

Herbs, rhizomatous, erect. Rhizomes slender. Stems 10-15(-30) cm. Leaves basal and cauline; stipules persistent, triangular, 5-8 × 3-4 mm, margin entire, apex long cuspidate; petiole 5-13 cm, sparsely setulose; blade ovate to suborbicular, nearly symmetric, 10-18 × 8-15 cm, sparsely setulose, venation palmate, base cordate, margin dentate, palmately 3-cleft to base, pinna bipinnatifid; lobules narrowly elliptic-lanceolate. Inflorescences glabrous; peduncle 3.5-4(-7) cm; bracts narrowly triangular, ca. 10 × 3 mm, apex acute. Staminate flowers: pedicel ca. 1.3 cm; tepals 4, white, glabrous, outer 2 broadly ovate, ca. 1.2 × 1.3 cm, inner 2 ovate, ca. 12 × 8 mm; stamens numerous; filaments fused to more than halfway; anthers obovoid. Pistillate flowers: pedicel pale pinkish, 1.4-1.7 cm; tepals 5, white, glabrous, unequal, largest orbicular, ca. 1.5 × 1.4 cm, smallest narrowly obovate, ca. 12 × 8 mm; ovary glabrous, 2-loculed; placentae axile, bilamellate; styles 2, fused at base; stigmas 2-cleft, spiraled. Capsule nodding, unequally 3-winged; abaxial wing ligulate or falcate, 1.7-2.3 cm, apex rounded. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Oct-Dec. 2n = 22*.

● Broad-leaved forests, on mossy rocks along shaded stream banks; ca. 600 m. Guangdong (Yangchun).

This species is very rare and known only from the type locality.