| English Name | Lance Asiabell |
|---|---|
| Status in China | Least Concern（LC） |
Description:
Perennial herbaceous vines, with milky juice, glabrous throughout. Tap root fusiform, 10-20 cm long, 1-4 cm in diameter. Leaves alternate on main stem, small, 2-4 opposite or in a whole on apex of branches; blade rhombic-ovate, narrowly ovate to elliptic, 3-10 cm long and 1.3-4.5 cm wide, apex acute or obtuse, base cuneate, entire or remotely serrate; petiole 1-5 mm long. Flowers solitary or in pairs terminal on branches; pedicels 1-9 cm long; calyx-tube ca. 1 mm long, adnate to middle of ovary, lobes 5,ovate-triangular, 1.3-3 cm long; corolla bell-shaped, 2-4 cm long, 2-3.5 in diam., 5 lobed, greenish yellow outside, dark purple inside; stamens 5; ovary half-inferior. Fruit a capsule, 2-2.5 cm in diam., with numerous winged seeds.
Distribution:
Ma On Shan. S,E,C and NE China. E Russia, Korea, Japan.
Habitat and Ecology:
In thin thickets on slopes and on margin of forest. Flowering: Aug.-Sept.
Roots of this species can be used as medicine. In Hong Kong, the southernmost extension of its distribution range, its population size and number of individuals of the species are small, but most of the localities of occurrence are in Country Park under protection.
References:
中國科學院植物研究所，1975: 中國高等植物圖鑒4：383，圖6180。科學出版社，北京。
洪德元，1983: 桔梗科，中國植物誌73（2）：37。科學出版社，北京。
莊兆祥、李甯漢(主編), 1986: 香港中草藥5: 168-169。商務印書館，香港。
