Pilea howelliana Hand.-Mazz.

Herbs perennial, stoloniferous, glabrous, monoecious or dioecious. Stems gray-green when dry, 15-100 m tall, succulent, swollen between nodes. Stipules persistent, triangular, ca. 1 mm, membranous; petiole subequal in length, 1-5 cm; leaf blade abaxially purplish, adaxially often pale green, narrowly ovate, asymmetric, subequal in size, 5.5-14 × 2.5-6 cm, herbaceous, 3-veined, whitish, conspicuous, lateral veins 10 each side, external secondary veins anastomosing by margin and reaching to serrate tips, cystoliths fusiform, often abaxially, conspicuous, base subrounded, margin shallowly crenate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences sometimes androgynous, solitary, a paniculate cyme, 9-14 cm overall, peduncle 5-14 cm. Male flowers subsessile, in bud ca. 1.2 mm; perianth lobes 4, narrowly ovate, apex acute; stamens 4; rudimentary ovary minute. Female flowers subsessile, in bud ca. 0.8 mm; perianth lobes connate at base, subequal, abaxial lobe larger, subapically corniculate; staminodes 3, squamiform, oblong. Achene brownish, broadly ovoid, ca. 1 mm, slightly compressed, almost not oblique, with a strongly elevated convex lens ring by margin. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Nov.

S and W Yunnan.

* Broad-leaved forests, shaded wet places, near streams, rocks; 1500-2500 m.