Species: Stauntonia chinensis
English Name: Chinese Stauntonia
Chinese Name: 野木瓜、華野木瓜
Family: Lardizabalaceae
Description:
Monoecious. Stems green, striate; bark pale grayish brown, thick, rough. Petiole 5–10 cm; leaf blade palmately 5–7-foliolate; petiolules 0.6–2.5 cm; leaflets oblong, elliptic, or oblong-lanceolate, 6–9(–11.5) × 2–4 cm, leathery, abaxially pale green and densely pale colored maculate, adaxially dark green and shiny, base obtuse, rounded, or cuneate, margin slightly revolute, apex acuminate; midvein adaxially impressed; secondary veins and tertiary veinlets conspicuously prominent on both surfaces. Corymbose racemes 3- or 4-flowered; bracts persistent, linear-lanceolate, 1.5–1.8 cm. Pedicel 2–3 cm; bracteoles linear-lanceolate, 1.5–1.8 cm. Sepals pale yellow to creamy white abaxially, adaxially purplish red. Petals 6, slightly purplish red at apex, ca. 1.5 mm, ligulate. Male flowers: outer 3 sepals lanceolate, ca. 1.8 × 0.6 cm; inner 3 sepals linear-lanceolate, ca. 16 × 3 mm. Filaments connate into a tube ca. 4 mm; anthers ca. 3 mm; connective apical appendage hornlike, as long as anther. Pistillodes minute, subulate. Female flowers: outer 3 sepals lanceolate 2.2–2.5 × ca. 0.6 cm; inner 3 sepals like those of male flowers. Staminodes ca. 1 mm. Carpels ovoid-clavate. Stigma oblique, capitate. Fruit oblong, 7–10 × 3–5 cm. Seeds subtriangular, ca. 1 cm, compressed; seed coat dark brown to blackish, shiny. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jun–Oct.
Photos used under a Creative Commons license
References:
Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2001) Flora of China. Vol. 6 (Caryophyllaceae through Lardizabalaceae.). Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis