Tiarella polyphylla D.

M. Wakabayashi, 2006, Tiarella and Mitella, Flora of Japan, Volume 2 b: Angiospermae-Dicotyledoneae: Archichlamydeae (b), Kodansha, pp. 70-75 : 70

1. Tiarella polyphylla D. Don,

Prodr. FI. Nepal.: 210 (1825).

Japanese name: Zuda-yakushu.

Perennial herbs. Rhizomes slender, creeping, branched, with hypogaeous stolons. Radical leaves few; blade widely ovate or orbicular, deeply cordate, acute to obtuse, 1-8 cm long and wide, shallowly 3-5-lobed, obtusely toothed, hirsute and short hairy on both surfaces, upper surface green, lower surface pale green; petiole 2-12 cm long, dense glandular hairs mixed with long and short hairs, with a pair of axillary stipules at base; stipules long adnate to petiole, separated apically, long hairy along margin. Flowering stems 10-40 cm tall, erect, densely glandular pubescent. Cauline leaves 2 or 3, alternate, short petiolate, similar in shape to radical leaves, often with short branches from axils. Inflorescences racemes, loosely 4-25-flowered. Flowers June to August, nodding; pedicel obliquely ascending, 3-7 mm long, minutely glandular, lower ones often 2-branched. Calyx cup-shaped, white, 2.5-3 mm long; calyx lobes 5, somewhat longer than calyx tube, erect, narrowly ovate, acute, 1.3-2 mm long, densely glandular on abaxial surface and along margin; calyx tube bowl-shaped, densely glandular. Petals 5, subulate-linear, white, longer than calyx lobes, 2-2.5 mm long, erect at anthesis. Stamens 10, attached to uppermost part of calyx tube, exserted beyond calyx lobes after anthesis; filaments slender, white; anthers ovate-orbicular at anthesis, pale yellow. Pistil white, minutely glandular hairy, adnate to calyx tube only at base; carpels 2, distinctly unequal, fused in lower half, gradually attenuate toward apex to form slender styles; styles ca. 1 mm long, with punctiform stigma at tip. Capsules distinctly unequally 2-valved, horizontally spreading to nodding; valves boat-shaped, with conspicuous parallel veins, longer capsules, 7-12 mm long, greenish when young, later pale brownish. Seeds ellipsoid, 1.2-1.4 mm long, smooth, black.

Chromosome number: 2n = 14 (Funamoto & Nakamura 1991).

Japan: Hokkaido, Honshu (eastward from Kinki Dist.) and Shikoku. Moist, shady places in subalpine coniferous forests in mountains.

Distr.: Japan, Taiwan, Korea (Ullun-do), China and the Himalaya.

Icones: Nakai & Honda, Nov. FI. Jap. 3: f. 32 (1939); Kitamura & Murata, Herb. PI. 2: t. 35 296 and f. 70 4 & 5; Terasaki, rev. ed.: f. 1160; Satake et al., Herb. PI. 2: photo. 150 4 & 5; Makino, rev. ed.: f. 971.