百蕊草 Thesium chinense

  • Scientific Name: Thesium chinense Turcz.
  • Ref: Bull. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 10(7):157. 1837
  • Chinese Common Name: 百蕊草 bǎiruǐcǎo
  • Family: Santalaceae
  • Genus: Thesium
  • Distribution: Wet ravines, slopes, grasslands, fields. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia].
  • Photo: 04/13/2013
Herbs perennial, ± farinose, glabrous. Stems fascicled, ascending, sparsely branched, slender and long, 15-40 cm, furrowed. Leaves linear, 15-35 × 0.5-1.5 mm, 1-veined, margin sometimes very sparsely papillate-ciliolate, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescences racemelike, many flowered; bracts inserted at tip of pedicel, linear-lanceolate; pedicel to 3.5 mm, sometimes almost absent; bracteoles 2, linear, 2-6 mm, margin rugose. Perianth 5-merous, greenish white, 2.5-3 mm; tube tubular, lobes acute, apex incurved, adaxially inconspicuously hairy. Stamens not exserted. Ovary sessile. Style very short. Nutlet pale green, ellipsoid or subglobose, 2-2.5 mm, with prominent reticulate veins; persistent perianth subglobose, ca. 2 mm; stalk 3.5 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Jul. (Flora of China)

Leave a comment