黄花胡椒 huang hua hu jiao

Climbers to more than 10 m, glabrous except for rachis and bases of bracts, dioecious. Stems brown when dry, 2-3 mm thick, finely ridged. Petiole 1-2.2 cm; leaf blade elliptic or ovate-oblong, 13-18 × 4-8.5 cm, pale yellowish gray when dry, papery, finely glandular (only visible with hand lens), leaf blades toward base of stem with base obliquely rounded, bilateral difference more than 4 mm, apex acuminate; veins 7, apical pair arising 1/3 way along midvein, alternate, others ± basal; reticulate veins conspicuous; leaf blades toward apex of stem with base ± symmetrically cuneate. Spikes leaf-opposed, yellow. Male spikes 14-21 cm × ca. 2 mm; peduncle slightly longer than petioles; bracts obovate, ca. 1 × 1 mm, membranous, peltate, stalk short, inserted at edge of excavation. Stamens 2, in excavations; filaments very short; anthers reniform. Female spikes 10-14 cm, to 18 cm in fruit; peduncle and rachis as in male spikes; bracts thick, stalk fleshy, thick, nearly as large as bract, ca. 1.2 × 1 mm. Ovary ovoid, inserted within excavations of rachis; stigmas 3(or 4), linear. Drupe yellow, globose, ca. 4 mm in diam. Fl. Nov-Apr.

* Near villages, in valleys and forests, on large trees; 500-1800 m. C and S Yunnan

Used medicinally.