12. Desmodium flexuosum Wallich ex Bentham var. cordifoliolatum (P. C. Li) P. H. Huang, Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin. 18: 6. 1998.
心叶山蚂蝗 xin ye shan ma huang
Desmodium cordifoliolatum P. C. Li, Acta Bot. Yunnan. 11: 301. 1989.
Subshrubs. Branchlets sparsely villous. Leaves 1-foliolate; stipules 5-6 mm; petiole 7-8 mm, sparsely villous; blade ovate, 2-3.5 cm, abaxially villous, adaxially glabrous. Racemes 10-15 cm; rachis sparsely villous, densely hooked pubescent, with 2-4 flowers, clustered. Pedicel ca. 2 mm. Calyx broadly campanulate, ca. 1.5 mm. Corolla purple; standard broadly obovate, 4.5-4.7 × ca. 3.5 mm, base shortly clawed; wings oblong, ca. 3 × 1.5 mm, auriculate, clawed; keel falcate-oblong, longer than wings. Legume narrowly oblong, 0.8-1.8 cm × 2-2.5 mm, 3-7-jointed; articles broadly ovoid, hooked pubescent, reticulate veined.
● Meadows. Sichuan.
Desmodium cordifoliolatum was described from a specimen from Dechang, Sichuan. It differs from typical D. flexuosum in having smaller stipules, leaflets, and petioles. One of us (Ohashi) regards D. cordifoliolatum as a synonym of D. gangeticum (see J. Jap. Bot. 70: 113. 1995).
Desmodium flexuosum var. flexuosum occurs in Myanmar and Thailand. It is a subshrub, 30-50 cm tall, with leaves 1-foliolate, petiole 3-6 cm, blade (3-)4.5-7.5 × (2.5-)4-7.2 cm, and stipules 0.9-1.2 cm.
