裂苞铁苋菜 lie bao tie xian cai

Acalypha brachystachya Hornemann; A. conferta Roxburgh; Nanocnide closii H. Léveillé & Vaniot.

Annual herbs, 0.2-0.8 m tall, monoecious. Stems slender, pubescent and sparsely hairy. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 5 mm; petiole 2.5-6 cm; leaf blade ovate or rhombic-ovate, 2-5.5 × 1.5-3.5 cm, membranous, base cordate, sometimes cuneate, margin crenate, apex acute to acuminate; basal veins 3-5. Inflorescences axillary, 1-3 together, 0.5-0.9 cm, bisexual, pilosulose; peduncle almost absent; female bracts 3-5, ca. 5 mm, 3-5-lobed, middle lobes oblong, lateral lobes smaller, 1-flowered; distal male portion short to almost capitate; bracts ovate, ca. 0.2 mm; apex sometimes with allomorphic female flower. Male flowers fascicled; pedicel ca. 0.5 mm; calyx ca. 0.3 mm in diam. in bud, pilose; stamens 7 or 8. Female flowers: pedicel short; sepals 3, suboblong, ca. 0.4 mm, ciliate; ovary pilose and hirtellous; styles 3, ca. 1.5 mm, 3-5-laciniate. Capsule 3-locular, ca. 2 mm in diam., pilose and tuberculate. Seeds ovoid, ca. 1.2 mm, minutely reticulate. Fl. May-Dec.

Grasslands on mountain slopes, roadsides, streamsides, terraced fields, usually in disturbed areas; 100-1900 m. Anhui, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam; tropical Africa].