Circaea mollis Sieb. & Zucc.

Plants 25-150 cm tall, pubescent with falcately recurved hairs. Rhizomes not tuberous. Leaves narrowly to broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 3-16 × 2-5.5 cm, base cuneate or occasionally rounded, margin subentire to denticulate, apex attenuate to slightly acuminate. Terminal raceme branched at base, rarely simple, 1.5-4 cm to ca. 20 cm; racemes at apex of axillary branches usually simple; flowering pedicel perpendicular to axis of raceme, without or rarely with a minute setaceous bracteole at base, commonly pubescent. Buds glabrous or pubescent with crisped, straight, capitate and clavately tipped glandular hairs. Floral tube 0.5-1 mm. Sepals spreading or somewhat reflexed in flower, pale green or whitish, 1.6-2.9 × 1-1.5 mm, apex abruptly shortly acuminate to obtuse or minutely mammiform. Petals white, broadly to broadly depressed-obovate, 0.7-1.8 × 1-2.6 mm, apical notch 1/4-1/2 length of petal. Stamens normally spreading at anthesis, shorter than or occasionally equal to, rarely longer than, style; nectary conspicuous, exserted beyond floral tube. Pedicel and mature fruit 5-7 mm. Fruit narrowly to broadly pyriform or globose, 2.6-3.5 × 2-3.2 mm, with prominent ribs and deep sulci, tapering concavely and obliquely to pedicel; fruiting pedicel reflexed, often sharply so. Ovary locules 2. Seeds 2. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 22*.

Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Cambodia, India (Assam), Japan, Korea, N Laos, N Myanmar, SE Russia, N Vietnam].

Deciduous forests; near sea level to ca. 2000 m.

Circaea coreana H. Léveillé; C. coreana var. sinensis H. Léveillé; C. lutetiana Linnaeus var. taquetii H. Léveillé.

Circaea mollis is a species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family Onagraceae.