牛筋藤 niu jin teng

Caturus scandens Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 2: 612. 1790; Malaisia tortuosa Blanco; Trophis scandens (Loureiro) Hooker & Arnott.

Climbing shrubs, to 4 m tall when free standing, scandent to 9 m. Branchlets brown, cylindric; lenticels white, orbicular. Leaf blade narrowly elliptic to elliptic-obovate, 5-12 × 2-4.5 cm, papery, abaxially ± scabrous, adaxially smooth, base rounded to cordate, margin entire or shallowly dentate toward apex, apex acuminate, caudate, or less often acute to ± rounded; secondary veins 7-12 on each side of midvein. Male inflorescences 3-6 cm, pubescent, basally dense, apically lax; peduncle 2-4 cm; bracts short, pubescent, basally connate, apically free. Female inflorescences ± globose, rarely more elongated, ca. 6 mm in diam., densely pubescent; peduncle ca. 1 cm, pubescent. Male flowers: sessile; calyx lobes triangular, pubescent; filaments 2 × as long as calyx lobes; anthers ± globose; pistillode small. Female flowers: calyx bottle-like, enclosing ovary; style pale reddish to dark red, linear, 1-3 cm, 2-branched. Drupes red, ovoid, 6-8 mm, sessile. Fl. spring to summer.

Scrub on hills; 100-300 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, SE Yunnan [Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia].