海南蒟 hai nan ju

Piper flagelliforme Yamamoto.

Climbers woody, glabrous except for rachis, dioecious. Stems 2-4 mm thick, finely furrowed. Petiole 1-3.5 cm; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate or elliptic, 7-12 × 3-5 cm, thinly leathery, drying gray-green, abaxially glaucous, adaxially shiny, base rounded or broadly cuneate, inconspicuously cordate, sinus usually narrower than petiole, apex usually acuminate, occasionally ± acute; veins 5(-7), apical pair arising up to 1 cm above base, others ± basal. Spikes leaf-opposed. Male spikes 7-12 cm × ca. 1.5 cm or longer; peduncle 1-2 cm; bracts obovate to obovate-oblong, ca. 1.5 × 0.8 mm, peltate, glandular. Stamens 3 or 4; filaments short. Female spikes 8-15 cm, to 22 cm in fruit; peduncle as in male spikes; rachis pubescent; bracts oblong or ovate-oblong, adnate to rachis, 2-3.5 × 0.8-1 mm, margin free. Ovary obovoid, sessile; stigmas 4, lanceolate, reflexed, persistent. Drupe ± fusiform, ca. 4-5 × 2.7-3.5 mm, minutely tuberculate to rugulose. Fl. Mar-May.

* Forests, on rocks or trees; 100-900 m. S Guangdong, S to SW Guangxi, Hainan