Mitella yoshinagae H.Hara

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

11. Mitella yoshinagae H.Hara

in J. Jap. Bot. 14: 518

(1938).

Japanese name: Tosa-charumeru-so.

Perennial herbs. Rhizomes long creeping, branched, with leaves loosely arranged. Leaf blade narrowly ovate or ovate, cordate, acute to acuminate, 3-13 cm long, 2-8 cm wide, usually shallowly 5-lobed, irregularly incised and acutely toothed, hirsute and minutely glandular pubescent on both surfaces, green on upper surface and pale green on lower surface; petiole 5-25 cm long, densely short glandular hairy and with long glandular hairs, with a pair of axillary stipules at base; stipules scarious, densely long or short hairy along margin. Flowering stems 20-30 cm tall, erect, densely glandular pubescent, often with a single small leaf on lower part. Inflorescences racemes, many-flowered. Flowers April to May; pedicel ca. 2-4 mm long, minutely glandular. Calyx tube broadly obconical, densely glandular pubescent, greenish; calyx lobes 5, triangular or depressed-triangular, acute, glabrous on adaxial and sparsely glandular on abaxial surfaces, ca. 0.9 mm long, spreading or often reflexed, greenish. Petals 5, 7-9-pinnatiparted, glandular dotted, ca. 4.5 mm long, spreading or slightly reflexed, reddish purple; pinnae slender, spreading or slightly obliquely ascending. Stamens 5, alternate calyx lobes, adjacent to base of petals, ca. 0.8-1.1 mm long; anthers ovoid, cordate, 0.7-0.9 mm long at anthesis, yellowish with purplish tinge. Disc prominent, flat, greenish. Ovary inferior. Styles 2, erect, ca. 0.5 mm long; stigmas thickened, shallowly 2-5-lobed, purplish. Seeds oblong, ca. 1.1 mm long, scabrous, with narrow longitudinal areolae elevated slightly, without papillae, brownish.

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

Japan: Shikoku and Kyushu (Kumamoto and Miyazaki Pref.). Moist, shady places along streams in mountainous areas. Endemic.

Icones: Satake et al., Herb. PI. 2: photo. 154 3.