Pilea basicordata W. T. Wang

Shrubs or subshrubs glabrous, monoecious. Stems gray-green, 6-13 cm tall, ca. 6 mm in diam., lenticels elliptic, densely covered with bacilliform cystoliths; internodes compacted; leaf scars semiorbicular, conspicuous. Leaves crowded at apex; stipules almost persistent, brownish, oblong, 20-22 × 8-10 mm, membranous, longitudinally 8-10-ribbed; petiole 3-8 cm, densely covered cystoliths; leaf blade gray-green, oblong-ovate, symmetric, subequal in size, 8-12 × 5-8 cm, succulent, but thick papery when dry, 3-veined, lateral veins 10 each side, anastomosing by margin, cystoliths conspicuous on both surfaces, base cordate or deeply cordate, margin undulate-erose or subentire from middle, apex acuminate or shortly caudate. Inflorescences solitary, a lax cymose-panicle, 8-13 cm overall, peduncle 6-8 cm; bracts triangular-ovate, ca. 0.8 mm. Male flowers pedicellate, in bud pear-shaped, ca. 2 mm in diam.; perianth lobes 4, cymbiform, connate 1/2 of length, subapically corniculate; stamens 4; rudimentary ovary minute, conic. Female flowers pedicellate; perianth lobes very unequal, ovate-oblong, slightly keeled; staminodes scale-like, elliptic-oblong, ca. 1.2 mm. Achene orange, oblong-ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, slightly compressed, spinulose-verrucose. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Apr-May.

Guangxi (Liucheng).

* Wet shady rocks in mixed forests on limestone mountains; ca. 900 m.