Epilobium minutiflorum Hausskn.

Herbs perennial, erect, with short, fleshy basal soboles or leafy rosettes. Stems 15-100 cm tall, well-branched or rarely simple, densely strigillose throughout, with scattered glandular hairs on inflorescence, often subglabrous below, with inconspicuous lines decurrent from margins of petioles. Leaves subsessile above, lower ones with petioles 1-6 mm; cauline blade oblong-lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 2-7 × 0.4-1.7 cm, glabrous except for strigillose margin and veins, base cuneate or subrounded, margin serrulate with 20-41 teeth per side, apex subobtuse or acute. Inflorescence suberect before anthesis; flowers erect. Sepals 2.4-4 mm, sometimes keeled. Petals white, rarely pink or rose, 3-4.3(-5) mm. Stigma clavate to subcapitate, entire. Capsules 3-8 cm, strigillose or rarely glabrescent; pedicels 0.5-2 cm. Seeds brown, 0.8-1.2 mm, minutely papillose, with conspicuous chalazal collar 0.08-0.12 mm; coma white, detaching readily. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 36.

Erect perennial herb, sprouting from the base or forming leafy basal rosettes; stem 10-75 cm tall, well-branched, with raised strigillose lines decurrent from the margins of the petioles, dense strigillose throughout or only above, then glabrescent below, rarely with glandular hairs on inflorescence. Leaves 2-8 x 0.5-2.3 cm, oblong-lanceolate, glabrous except for strigillose margins and veins, margins serrulate, apex subacute, cuneate base, subsessile. Inflorescence erect, dense canescent, rarely mixed with glandular hairs. Sepals 2.5-3 mm long, white-canescent. Petals 3-4.5 mm long, white to pale pink. Style 1.8-2.2 mm. Stigma clavate, surrounded by anthers at anthesis. Capsules 3.5-6 cm long, on pedicels 1-2.1 cm long. Seeds 0.8-1.1 x 0.32-0.42 mm, obovoid or narrowly so, papillose, the chalazal collar rather inconspicuous, 0.02-0.06 mm long; coma 4-5.5 mm, dingy white, deciduous.

Gansu, Hebei, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].

Distribution: Central Anatolia in Turkey eastwards to Kumaun in the Himalaya.

Frequent in moist places by streams, bogs, roadside ditches in otherwise low, warm areas; 500-1800 m.

Although a distinctive species by virtue of its minute flowers and white-canescent ovaries, E. minutiflorum is quite variable, and often similar in aspect to E. cylindricum, with which it is most often confused. Because it grows in a wide range of habitats, and extends particularly into lower elevations than most Epilobium in the region (including several collections from Baluchistan), E. minutiflorum has a longer growing season than other species. Fl. Per.: May-Oct. Fr. Per.: Jun-Nov.

Epilobium decipiens Haussknecht (1879), not F. Schultz (1861); E. modestum Haussknecht; E. propinquum Haussknecht; E. tetragonum Linnaeus var. minutiflorum (Haussknecht) Boissier.

Epilobium modestum Hausskn, Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 29: 55. 1879; Monogr. Epil. 211. 1884; H. LJv., Ic. Gen. Epil. t. 134. 1910; Shteinb. in Schischk. & Bobr., Fl. URSS 15: 620. 1949. Lectotype: Ladakh, Nubra Valley, 4 Aug. 1848, Thomson s.n. (K). Epilobium palustre sensu Clarke in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 2: 585. 1879, pro parte, non L. Epilobium tetragonum sensu Aitch., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 18: 60. 1880, pro parte, non L.