Volume 15 > Part 1 > Year 2021 > Page 211 > Rubiaceae > Ophiorrhiza

6. Ophiorrhiza kunstleri Kingwfo-0000257067

J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 72(2): 176. 1904; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 2: 41. 1923; Craib, Fl. Siam. 2: 66. 1932.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Ascending to suberect or erect herbs 12–35 cm tall; stems unbranched or branched, loosely hairy or densely hairy throughout, at least in upper portion, with flexuose, white hairs 0.3–0.7 mm long. Stipules persistent, narrowly triangular or setaceous to narrowly subulate, 1.5–7.5 by 0.8–2.5 mm, coriaceous, often fimbriate, somewhat hairy. Leaves equal or unequal, elliptic or broadly lanceolate, 5.7–13 by 2.4–4.3 cm, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, apex acuminate, margin hairy, densely or scatteredly hairy with straight or villous, white hairs 0.2–1.5 mm long above, dry dark or yellow-brown to olive-green, densely or scatteredly hairy throughout surface with straight or villous, white hairs 0.15–0.6 mm long beneath, lateral veins 8–14 pairs, veins beneath same colour as blade; petiole 0.8–4.5 cm long. Inflorescences terminal helicoid cymes with underdeveloped central axis, very compact in flower and in fruit or with branches elongated in fruit, at anthesis upright; flowers per inflorescence 15–45; peduncle at anthesis 1.5–2.5 cm long, densely or loosely hairy throughout with villous, white or rusty hairs, 0.3–0.9 mm long; inflorescence branches with or without secondary branchlets, to 0.5–2 cm long, densely hairy throughout with hairs same as on peduncle, 0.2–0.8 mm long; flower buds 4–5.5 mm long, apex angular, slightly ribbed; bracts & bracteoles equal or longer than ovaries, narrow to broadly lanceolate to elliptic, obtuse to acute at apex, hairy on surface and margin, 2–5.5 mm long. Flowers heterostylous; pedicels shorter, equal or longer than ovaries, 1–2 mm long. Calyx lobes deltoid, length (sub)equal to width, or lanceolate, longer than wide, 0.5–0.7 mm long. Ovary dense hispidly hairy. Longistylous flowers: corolla cylindric to narrow infundibular, white, outside hairy on both tube and lobes with hairs 0.2–0.5 mm long; tube 2.5–3.5 mm long, not inflated at base, inside with dense ring of upwards appressed hairs 0.5–0.7 mm long, protruding from throat of an open flower; lobes spreading, 1–1.5 mm long, shorter than tube, inside scaly; stamens attached above tube base, below hair ring; filament ca 0.6 mm long (free part); anthers included at middle of tube, below hair ring, 0.75–1 mm long; style exserted, 2.3–3.5 mm long (excluding stigma), glabrous; stigma 0.4–0.5 mm long, lobes roundish. Brevistylous flowers unknown. Capsules laterally flattened, cordate, 2–3 by 5.5–6.5 mm, upper margin concave; capsules in inflorescence loose, touching each other’s margins, or distanced from each other.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Satun.

Distribution : Malay Peninsula (Perak – type).

Ecology : In evergreen forests, on moist soil and limestone rock, along streams, 0–200 m alt.