Eriocaulon brownianum Mart.

Leaves linear, 3.5--4 cm × 4--6 mm, sparsely and shortly hairy, veins ca. 23. Scape 1, ca. 50 cm × 1.5 mm, 5--7-ribbed; sheath 14--28 cm; receptacle densely villous; heads milky white, subglobose, ca. 1 × 1.2--1.5 cm; involucral bracts reflexed, straw-colored or blackish, oblong, 3.5--4 × 2.2--3.6 mm, abaxially villous at base and shortly hairy toward apex; floral bracts oblanceolate, abaxially white clavate hairy toward apex. Male flowers: sepals spathelike, 3.2--3.7 mm, abaxially white clavate hairy toward usually 3-lobed apex; petals (2 or)3, obovate, equal, white clavate hairy toward apex, gland black; anthers (4--)6, black. Female flowers: sepals 3, free, boatlike, 3--3.5 mm, densely white clavate hairy toward apex; petals 3, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, membranous, villous, fascicled white clavate hairy at apex, gland black; ovary 3-loculed; style 3-cleft. Seeds ovoid, 0.7--0.8 mm; testa hexagonally reticulate, prickles T-shaped. Fl. and fr. May--Dec.

Guangdong, SE Hunan, Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].

Swamps, sunny marshlands, grassy fields with loamy soil; 800--2800 m.