定心藤属 ding xin teng shu

Lianas woody, roughly and somewhat rigidly strigose; tendrils thick. Leaves opposite, or subopposite, petiolate, entire, leathery, veins pinnate. Plants dioecious. Flowers rather small, somewhat rigidly pilose, in short, few-flowered, axillary cymes. Staminate calyx cupular, small, shallowly 5-lobed. Petals campanulate-funnelform, large, 5-lobed to 1/3 or very few to 2/3; lobes valvate, hairy. Disk absent. Staminate flowers with stamens 5, free, slightly shorter than corolla; filaments flat, base slightly slender, upward gradually dilated, glabrous; anthers narrowly ovoid; ovary hairy; style stout, apex obtuse. Pistillate flowers as in staminate flowers but slightly smaller; rudimentary stamens present. Drupe narrowly ellipsoid, compressed; exocarp yellowish red, thin, fleshy, somewhat rigidly strigose; endocarp thinly crustaceous, with concave reticulate wrinkles and some longitudinal grooves, inside smooth; embryo small.

Two very closely related species: tropical Asia; one species in China.

Lower Taxon

• Mappianthus iodoides Handel-Mazzetti