Lepidaria pulchella

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Lepidaria pulchella

Description

Glabrous or young parts scurfy. Leaves opposite, sometimes displaced; lamina ovate to elliptic, 10-20 by 5-10 cm, cuneate at the base to a petiole 10-20 mm long, attenuate and finally acute to rounded at the apex, lustrous or dull green above, dull and brownish below; venation pinnate with the midrib and the main laterals distinct on both sides and the midrib prominent below. Inflorescencess at the nodes, a subsessile involucrate capitate spike of 2-3(-4) decussate pairs of flowers; involucre 20-30 mm long, mostly yellow or green below and orange or red above, comprising 10-12 pairs of bracts, the longer ones keeled, mostly strongly recurved along the upper margin; floral axis c. 5 mm long; lateral bracts enclosing the flowers c. 12 mm long, keeled, acute.

Distribution

Asia-Tropical: Borneo (Brunei present, Sabah present, Sarawak present)
Malesia: Borneo (Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah).

Notes

Vegetatively similar to Lepidaria bicarinata, but differs in its fewer-flowered inflorescences with smaller involucres in which the bracts are more undulate or rolled back at the margins.