Mitella pauciflora Rosend

M. Wakabayashi, 2006, Tiarella and Mitella, Flora of Japan, Volume 2 b: Angiospermae-Dicotyledoneae: Archichlamydeae (b), Kodansha, pp. 70-75 : 72-73

5. Mitella pauciflora Rosend .

in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 50: 387 (1914).

Mitella japonica Maxim , in Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Petersbourg 11: 431 (1867), pro parte.

Japanese name: Ko-charumeru-so.

Perennial herbs. Rhizomes long creeping, stoloniferous, with scales and small leaves at apex. Radical leaf blade widely ovate or ovate-orbicular, deeply cordate, acute or obtuse, 2-5 cm long, 2.5-6 cm wide, shallowly 5-lobed, incised and toothed, hirsute and minutely glandular pubescent on both surfaces; petiole 2-15 cm long, incliningly hirsute and minutely glandular pubescent, with fused axillary stipules at base; stipules scarious, oblong, 2-3 mm long, sparsely minutely glandular along margin. Flowering stems 20-30 cm tall, erect, densely short glandular, hirsute toward base. Inflorescences racemes, 2-10-flowered. Flowers April to June; pedicel ca. 2 mm long, minutely glandular. Calyx tube broadly obconical, densely glandular pubescent; calyx lobes 5, depressed triangular, acute or subacute, nearly glabrous on both surfaces, ca. 1 mm long, spreading and reflexed, greenish. Petals 5, 5-7-pinnatiparted, minutely glandular, ca. 3-4.3 mm long, spreading or reflexed, yellowish green or reddish purple; pinnae slender, spreading or obliquely ascending. Stamens 5, alternate calyx lobes, attached to disc, apart from base of petals, 0.8-0.9 mm long; anthers broadly ovoid, cordate, ca. 0.7 mm long at anthesis, with opening facing upward after longitudinal dehiscence. Disc prominent, flat or slightly convex, greenish. Ovary inferior. Styles 2, erect, ca. 0.7 mm long, with punctiform stigmas at tip. Seeds ovate-oblong, ca. 1.2 mm long, scabrous, with narrow longitudinal areolae elevated slightly, without papillae, dark green with dark

Mitella purplish dots.

Chromosome number: 2n = 28, 42 (Wakabayashi 1973).

Japan: Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Moist, shady places in woods or along streams in mountainous areas. Endemic.

Icones: Nakai & Honda, Nov. FI. Jap. 3: f. 36 (1939); Kitamura & Murata, Herb. PI. 2: t. 35 297 and f. 72 2; Terasaki, rev. ed.: f. 1156; Satake et al., Herb. PI. 2: photo. 151 5 & 6; Makino, rev. ed.: f. 973.