Pilea scripta (Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don) Wedd.

Common in shady places up to 2000 m.

Perennial stout herbs, stoloniferous, glabrous, dioecious or monoecious. Stems branched, 1-1.5 m tall, woody at base, succulent distally, with galls on mid portion of internodes. Stipules persistent, light green, triangular, 2-3 mm, herbaceous, veinless; petiole subequal in length, 1-3(-6) cm; leaf blade abaxially pale green, elliptic- or oblong-lanceolate, sometimes narrowly elliptic, subequal in size, 6-15 × 2.5-5 cm, membranous, 3-veined, lateral veins many, conspicuous, subtransverse, terminal veins often interruptedly thickened at tip or middle, cystoliths minute, adaxial, base broadly cuneate or rounded, rarely subcordate, margin serrulate or shallowly serrate, apex caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences solitary, in upper stem, a cymose panicle, often longer than petioles. Male flowers pedicellate or sessile, in bud ovoid, ca. 1 mm; perianth lobes 4, connate 1/2 of length, conspicuously ribbed; stamens 4; rudimentary ovary small. Female flowers subsessile, in bud ca. 0.5 mm; perianth lobes connate at base, unequal, abaxial lobe cymbiform, longer, subapically corniculate; staminodes 3, small, scale-like, oblong. Achene sometimes purplish spotted, broadly ovoid, ca. 1 mm, compressed, oblique, verrucose. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

A dioecious perennial, glabrous, erect, up to 30-120 cm tall basally woody, herb. Leaves with 1-5 cm long petiole; lamina 3-18 cm long, 2-8 cm broad, serrulate, serratures fine, base cuneate, apex acute-acuminate; stipules triangular, c. 2.5-3.5 cm long, persistent. Panicle of cymes 6-8 cm long. Flowers minute. Achenes ovate-elliptic, c. 1 mm long, whitish, tuberculate, with a distinct intramarginal ridge.

S Xizang, W Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

Himalaya (Garhwal to Bhutan), Khasia, Burma, W. China.

Distribution: Pakistan, (N.W.F.Province, Punjab) Kashmir, Nepal, India, (Punjab, Uttar Pardesh, Bhotan) and Northern Burma.

1300-2500 m

Fl.Per.: June-October.

Shaded moist places in broad-leaved forests; 2000-3000 m.

Urtica scripta Buchanan-Hamilton ex D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 59. 1825.