Hedyotis speciosa Handel-Mazzetti; H. wulsinii Merrill; Oldenlandia mellii (Tutcher) Chun.

Herbs, erect, perennial, to 90 cm tall; stems subterete to 4-angled, densely to sparsely hirtellous or pilosulous to sometimes glabrescent. Leaves sessile; blade drying papery, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic, lanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, 3.5-9.5 × 0.5-3.5 cm, adaxially sparsely to densely puberulent or hispidulous or often glabrous on lamina, abaxially sparsely to densely hirtellous, pilosulous, or hispidulous to glabrous; secondary veins 3 or 4 pairs; stipules fused to petiole bases, triangular to broadly triangular, 1-3 mm, densely puberulent, hirtellous, or hispidulous to glabrescent, marginally entire to glandular-serrate, acuminate or with 3-5 narrowly triangular to linear lobes or bristles 0.2-2 mm. Inflorescences terminal and usually also in axils of uppermost leaves, cymose to compound-cymose, paniculate to often racemiform, 3-25 cm, several to many flowered, densely to sparsely pilosulous, puberulent, or hispidulous to glabrous; peduncle 0.5-7 cm; bracts narrowly elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, 1-5 mm; pedicels 1-5 mm. Flowers pedicellate, apparently monomorphic. Calyx glabrous or sparsely to densely hirtellous to pilosulous; hypanthium portion cupulate to obconic or elliptic, ca. 1 mm; limb 1-1.5 mm, lobed for 2/3-4/5; lobes ovate-lanceolate to narrowly triangular. Corolla presumably white, funnelform, outside glabrous to densely hirtellous or pilosulous, inside densely villosulous or tomentulose in throat and onto lobes; tube 2-2.5 mm; lobes lanceolate to spatulate, 4-4.5 mm, acute. Anthers shortly exserted, ca. 1.2 mm. Stigma long exserted, ca. 0.2 mm. Fruit capsular, ellipsoid to subglobose, 2-3 mm, sparsely to densely hirtellous, pilosulous, or glabrous, crustaceous to thickly papery or cartilaginous, septicidally then loculicidally dehiscent; seeds several, black, angled. Fl. Jun-Nov, fr. Aug-Nov.

This species is very similar to Hedyotis cantoniensis, H. matthewii, and H. tenuipes, and these are here separated somewhat differently from the circumscriptions of FRPS (71(1): 48, 51, 52, 54. 1999). Hedyotis matthewii may be only a glabrous form of H. mellii, although they do appear to be distinct.

● Jungles or thickets on mountains or mountain slopes; 400-1100 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi.