Speranskia cantonensis (Hance) Pax & K. Hoffm.

Perennial herbs, 50-70(-100) cm tall, few branched; branchlets appressed pubescent. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 0.5 mm, often absent; petiole 1-3.5 cm; leaf blade ovate, broadly elliptic, or ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 2-9 × 1-4 cm, papery, abaxially pubescent or pilose along veins, adaxially pilose, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, margin coarsely crenate or dentate, apex acute, sometimes acuminate. Inflorescence 4-8 cm, infructescence 10-12 cm, pubescent; bracts ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or lanceolate, 1-3 mm, pilose. Male flowers 1-3 per bract; pedicels 1-2 mm; sepals ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, pilose; petals obovate or obcordate, ca. 1 mm; disk glands 5; stamens 10(-12); filaments glabrous. Female flowers 1 per bract; sepals ovate- lanceolate, 1-1.5 mm, pilose; petals absent; disk annular, sinuate; ovary densely tuberculate and pilose; styles ca. 1.5 mm, deeply 2-lobed, plumose-lacerate. Fruiting pedicels 5-6 mm; capsule 3-lobed, 6-7 mm in diam., pilose, usually tuberculate. Seeds globose, ca. 2 mm in diam., brownish. Fl. Feb-Jul, fr. May-Dec.

N Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, S Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.

● Grassy slopes or mountain thickets, usually on limestone; 200-1000(-2600) m.

Argyrothamnia cantonensis Hance, J. Bot. 16: 14. 1878; Mercurialis acanthocarpa H. Léveillé; Speranskia henryi Oliver; S. yunnanensis S. M. Hwang.