Japanese name: チャルメルソウ（哨吶草） Scientific name:Mitella furusei var. subramosa
[Overview]
A perennial found on slopes along mountain streams and in moist shade in forests.
It has a short rhizome.
The leaves are basal leaves tufted at the tip of the rhizome, broadly ovate to ovate, 2.5–8 cm long and 3–5 cm wide, with a heart-shaped base and an underside tinged reddish purple.
The leaf margin has uneven teeth.
The petioles and both leaf surfaces bear coarse hairs and glandular hairs.
Female flowers and bisexual flowers occur on separate plants.
A flower stalk 30–50 cm tall is produced, with long spreading hairs on the lower part and short glandular hairs on the upper part and the flower stalks.
The flowers have 5 petals, but each petal is pinnately divided into 3–5 lobes (rarely 6–7), giving the flower a distinctive shape.
The petals are tinged reddish purple.
The calyx tube is shallowly conical, and the calyx lobes are ovate-triangular and stand upright at flowering.
The fruit is a capsule that faces upward and is shaped like a long, slender trumpet.
The seeds have minute longitudinal ridges but no projections.
[Notes]
The Japanese name derives from the fruit's resemblance to the charumera (a reed instrument).
