Species: Stephania longa
English Name: Long Stephania
Chinese Name: 糞箕篤
Family: Menispermaceae
Description:
Herbaceous vines, 1-4 m or longer, glabrous except for inflorescence. Branches slender, striate. Petiole 1-4.5 cm, often twining at base; leaf blade conspicuously peltate, triangular-ovate, 3-9 × 2-6 cm, papery, adaxially dark brown, abaxially light green, sometimes pinkish green, base subtruncate or slightly rounded, rarely slightly concave, apex obtuse, with a finely mucronate acumen, palmately 10- or 11-veined. Inflorescences compound umbelliform cymes, axillary; peduncle 1-4 cm; male inflorescences more slender, hispidulous; umbellet very condensed, headlike; pedicels ± concealed by flowers. Male flowers: sepals (6 or)8 in 2 whorls, cuneate or obovate, ca. 1 mm, abaxially with short papillary hairs; petals 4, sometimes 3, greenish yellow, usually rotund, ca. 0.4 mm; synandrium ca. 0.6 mm. Female flowers: sepals and petals (3 or)4, ca. 0.6 mm; ovary glabrous, stigma lobes divaricate. Drupes red, 5-6 mm; endocarp abaxially ornamented with rows of 10 or slightly more. Fl. late spring-early summer, fr. autumn.
Photos used under a Creative Commons license
References:
Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2008). Flora of China, Volume 7: Menispermaceae through Capparaceae. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis