• Scientific Name: Melastoma dodecandrum Lour.
• Ref: Fl. Cochinch. 1:274. 1790
• Synonyms: Asterostoma repens Blume; Melastoma repens Desr.; Osbeckia repens DC.
• Chinese Common Name: 地菍 dìniè, 铺地锦 pùdì∙jǐn
• Family: Melastomataceae
• Genus: Melastoma
• Distribution: Open fields, thickets, grasslands, trailsides; below 1300 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi,
• Zhejiang [Vietnam].
• Photo: 06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden, Guangdong

Shrublets 10-30 cm tall. Stems often repent; branchlets numerous, procumbent, strigose when young, later glabrous. Petiole 0.2-0.6(-1.5) cm; leaf blade ovate to elliptic, 1-4 × 0.8-2(-3) cm, stiffly papery, abaxially very remotely strigose along veins, adaxially usually strigose at margin only or sometimes sparsely strigose among veins, secondary veins 1 or 2 on each side of midvein, tertiary veins numerous and parallel, base broadly cuneate, margin densely serrulate or entire, apex acute. Inflorescences terminal, cymose, (1-)3-flowered, with 2 leaflike bracts at base. Pedicel 2-10 mm, strigose, apically 2-bracteolate; bracteoles ovate, 2-3 × ca. 1.5 mm, abaxially strigose, margin ciliate. Hypanthium ca. 5 mm, strigose, base of trichomes conically inflated. Calyx lobes lanceolate, 2-3 mm, sparsely strigose, margin bristly ciliate. Petals lavender to purple, rhomboid-obovate, 1.2-2 × 1-1.5 cm, apically oblique. Longer stamens with purple anthers; connective long extended at base, curved, apex 2-tuberculate. Shorter stamens with connective not extended, apex 2-tuberculate. Ovary inferior, apically bristly. Fruit urceolate-globular, 7-9 × ca. 7 mm, succulent, strigose. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jul-Sep. (Flora of China)