Dwarf Lilyturf

Widely cultivated in China for its tuberous roots, which are used medicinally.

Plants stoloniferous. Roots moderately thick, usually with tuberous part near middle or tip. Leaves basal, tufted, sessile, grasslike, generally 10--50 cm × 2--4 mm, 3--7-veined, margin serrulate. Scape 6--15(--27) cm, much shorter than leaves. Inflo-rescence a reduced panicle, 2--5 cm, several to more than 10-flowered; bracts lanceolate, basal one 7--8 mm. Flowers solitary or paired, usually nodding; pedicel 3--4 mm, articulate near middle. Tepals white or purplish, lanceolate, ca. 5 × 2 mm. Filaments very short; anthers 2.5--3 mm. Style somewhat narrowly conical, ca. 4 mm, moderately thick, basally widened. Seeds globose, 7--8 mm in diam. Fl. May--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep. 2 n = 34*, 36*, 67, 68*, 72*, 108*.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].

Forests, dense scrub in ravines, moist and shady places on slopes and along streams, cliffs; 200--2800 m.

Convallaria japonica Linnaeus f., Suppl. Pl. 204. 1782; Anemarrhena cavaleriei H. Léveillé, nom. illeg. (included Ophiopogon stolonifer); C. japonica var. minor Thunberg; Flueggea japonica (Linnaeus f.) Richard; Mondo japonicum (Linnaeus f.) Farwell; M. stolonifer (H. Léveillé & Vaniot) Farwell; O. argyi H. Léveillé; O. chekiangensis Koiti Kimura & Migo; O. stolonifer H. Léveillé & Vaniot; Slateria japonica (Linnaeus f.) Desvaux.