石丁香 shi ding xiang

Hymenopogon parasiticus Wallich in Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 2: 157. 1824; H. parasiticus var. longiflorus F. C. How ex W. C. Chen.

Small shrubs, 0.3-2 m tall; branches stout, villosulous to hirtellous sometimes becoming glabrescent with age. Leaves sometimes grouped at apex of shortened branches; petiole 0.4-2 cm, villosulous to hirsutulous; blade drying papery or membranous, often grayish black, elliptic-obovate, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or obovate, 5-25 × 1.5-11 cm, adaxially puberulent to hirtellous, strigillose, or glabrescent, abaxially strigillose to pilosulous at least on principal veins, base obtuse to acute, apex obtuse, acute, or rarely acuminate; secondary veins 15-28 pairs; stipules ovate to suborbicular, 6-12 mm, strigillose to glabrous, cuspidate or obtuse to rounded. Inflorescences tomentulose to villosulous or villous, sessile and 3- or 5-partite, 4-18 × 4-24 cm (including petaloid bracts); bracts stipuliform, ovate, 5-15 mm, acuminate to 2-lobed, petaloid bracts white to cream, with blade portion drying papery to stiffly papery, elliptic-oblong to elliptic, 3-10 × 1.5-3.3 cm, strigillose to pilosulous or glabrescent, obtuse to acute, with stipe 2.5-4 cm; pedicels 0.8-1.2 cm. Calyx densely villosulous to tomentulose; ovary portion obconic, ca. 3 mm; limb deeply lobed, strigillose to glabrous; lobes lanceolate to narrowly triangular, 6-10 mm, acute. Corolla white [to pale green in Thailand], outside crisped villosulous to strigillose or strigose; tube 25-60 mm; lobes ovate-oblong to ovate, 5-10 mm, acute to obtuse. Capsules ellipsoid-oblong to ellipsoid, smooth or longitudinally weakly ridged, 1.5-3 × 0.6-1 cm, villosulous to pilosulous or strigillose; seeds 5-6 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Sep-Dec.

On trees or rocks in thickets or forests in valleys; 1200-2700 m. Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].

Hymenopogon parasiticus var. longiflorus was originally dis-tinguished by its corolla length (5-7 cm vs. 2.5-4 cm in var. parasiticus). W. C. Chen (in FRPS 71(1): 233. 1999) synonymized these with some commentary.