东南蛇根草 dong nan she gen cao

Hayataella mitchelloides Masamune, Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Formosa 24: 206. 1934 ["michelloides"]; Geophila exigua H. L. Li; Ophiorrhiza exigua (H. L. Li) H. S. Lo.

Herbs, procumbent to creeping, generally rooting at most nodes; stems villous with multicellular trichomes. Leaves in subequal to unequal pairs; petiole 0.3-1.3 cm, densely villous to villosulous; blade drying papery, adaxially dark gray or nearly black, abaxially purplish red to reddish or rarely pale, broadly ovate, ovate, or suborbicular, 0.8-2.5 × 0.6-2 cm, sparsely pilose to villous along principal veins to throughout on both surfaces, base subtruncate to obtuse or rounded, apex acute to rounded-obtuse; secondary veins 3-5 pairs; stipules usually caducous, triangular to ligulate, 1-1.5 mm, glabrescent, acuminate to 2-4-lobed. Inflorescences fasciculate to cymose, 1- or 2(or 5)-flowered, villosulous; peduncles and/or pedicels 0.4-2 cm; bracts linear, 4-8 mm. Flowers distylous, pedunculate or pedicellate. Calyx with hypanthium compressed globose, ca. 1.2 mm, densely villosulous; lobes linear, ca. 1.4 mm, glabrescent or ciliate. Corolla white, funnelform or salverform, outside with 5 strigose or hispidulous lines; tube ca. 15 mm, inside with white villous ring just above middle and otherwise villous or glabrous except pubescent in throat; lobes broadly ovate, 5-6.5 mm. Capsules obcordate, ca. 3.5 × 9-10 mm, villous. Fl. Apr, fr. Jun.

● Broad-leaved forests or forest margins; 400-1500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan.

This small plant was separated by some authors in a monotypic genus endemic to Taiwan, Hayataella. However, recent authors have noted a broader range for it and included it in Ophiorrhiza based on morphological (H. S. Lo, Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 10(2): 1-82. 1990, and references cited therein) and molecular (Nakamura et al., J. Plant Res. 119: 657-661. 2006) characters. H. S. Lo in FRPS (71(1): 141-142. 1999) detailed both short-styled and long-styled flowers.