Chinese Plumbago

Perennial herbs, deciduous, rhizomatous, to 2 m tall. Rhizomes rooting at nodes just below ground. Branches spreading, fragile, pith equal or wider than surrounding xylem, nodes with ringlike scars; branchlets sparsely strigose. Bud scales scalelike. Petiole basally clasping, often forming ringlike scars after falling; leaf blade obovate-rhombic, ovate-rhombic, or rarely obovate, (1.5--)2.0--5.0 X (0.8--)1.2--1.8(--2.5) mm, usually lanceolate below inflorescence, base cuneate and attenuate into petiole. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, 3--7-flowered, sometimes crowded to capitate; bracts ovate-oblong to oblong, 6--8(--10) X 2--3.5 mm; bractlets ovate to oblong, 5--7 X ca. 3 mm. Calyx 1.0--1.5 X ca. 1 mm, sparsely strigose and with a few stellate hairs along ribs, lobes 4--4.5 mm. Corolla 2--2.6 cm, tube red-purple; lobes blue, obdeltate, 9--11 X 6.5--7 mm, apex emarginate and mucronate. Stamens ± as long as corolla tube; anthers purple, ca. 2 mm. Ovary ovoid. Style branches extending beyond anthers. Capsules ca. 6 mm. Seeds black. Fr. Jul-Oct. fr. Jun-Nov.

Gansu (Wen Xian), W Guizhou, S and W Sichuan, SE Xizang, E and N Yunnan

* Warm valleys at forest edges or in thickets; 700--3500 m.

W China and Tibet

Ceratostigma willmottianum, Chinese plumbago, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae that is native to western China and Tibet. It is an ornamental deciduous shrub that grows to 1 metre in height, with pale blue plumbago-like flowers appearing in autumn as the leaves start to turn red.