Mitella doiana Ohwi

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

4. Mitella doiana Ohwi

in Acta Phytotax. Geobot. 1: 302 (1932).

Japanese name: Hime-charumeru-so.

Perennial small herbs. Rhizomes creeping. Radical leaves tufted; blade ovate, deeply cordate, acute, 0.8-1.3 cm long, 0.7-1 cm wide, shallowly and acutely lobulate, toothed, hirsute on both surfaces, upper surface dark green, lower surface pale green; petiole 1-2.5 cm long, hirsute, with a fused axillary stipule at base; stipules scarious, oblong, entire, slightly hairy near apex. Flowering stems 2-7 cm tall, erect, hirsute and glandular-pubescent. Inflorescences racemes, l-3(or 4)-flowered. Flowers May to June; pedicel 2-3 mm long, densely glandular. Calyx tube campanulate-obconical, sparsely glandular, 2.5-3.5 mm long; calyx lobes 5, triangular-ovate, acute, glandular on abaxial and glabrous on adaxial sides, ca. 1 mm long, erect, slightly recurved near tip, greenish. Petals absent. Stamens 5, alternate calyx lobes, ca. 0.6 mm long at anthesis; anthers broadly orbicular, cordate, ca. 0.4 mm long, yellow. Disc inconspicuous. Ovary inferior. Styles 2, erect, 0.5-0.8 mm long, 2-lobed at tip; lobes spreading or reflexed, with stigma at apex. Seeds ovate, ca. 1 mm long, scabrous and densely papillose, brownish.

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

Japan: Kyushu (Yakushima). Moist, mossy rocks in shade; 1000-1600 m. Endemic.

Icones: Nakai & Honda, Nov. FI. Jap. 3: f. 35 (1939); Kitamura & Murata, Herb. PI. 2: f. 72 1; Terasaki, rev. ed.: f. 1155.