恒春铁苋菜 heng chun tie xian cai

Shrubs, ca. 3 m tall. Branches purplish, glabrescent. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, pilose; petiole 1-2 cm, pilose; leaf blade oblong-ovate or narrowly elliptic, 5-8 × 2-4 cm, lightly papyraceous, adaxially glabrescent, abaxially pilose along veins, base broadly cuneate or obtuse, margin serrulate, apex acuminate; basal veins 3. Spike axillary, bisexual, 3-5 cm; peduncle ca. 1.5 cm; base with 1 female flower, otherwise flowers male; female bracts suborbicular, fruiting accrescent, ca. 6 × 10 mm, ca. 10-denticulate, glabrous; male bracts ovate, ca. 0.2 mm. Male flowers 5 or 6, fascicled; pedicel ca. 0.5 mm; sepals 4, subovate, ca. 0.5 mm; stamens 8. Female flower subsessile; sepals 3, subtriangular, ca. 1 mm; ovary hairy; styles 3, laciniate. Capsule 3-locular, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., pilose. Seeds ovoid, ca. 2.5 mm, smooth. Fl. Jul-Aug.

● Hills, thickets; below 100 m. S Taiwan.