山草果 shan cao guo

Aristolochia delavayi var. micrantha W. W. Smith.

Herbs twining (type appears erect), pungently odorous. Stems pruinose, terete, shallowly striate, glabrous, densely nodose. Leaves sessile or subsessile; leaf blade ovate, 2-8 × 1.5-5 cm, papery, densely punctate, both surfaces glabrous, veins palmate, 2-3 pairs from base, base cordate, amplexicaul, apex acute or obtuse. Flowers in axils of leafy shoots, solitary. Pedicel ascending, 1-1.5 cm, glabrous; bractlets early deciduous (not seen). Calyx yellowish, throat dark purple; tube rectilinear or slightly curved, abaxially glabrous; utricle globose, 4-5 mm in diam., sessile; tube ca. 15 × 2 mm; limb unilateral, ligulate, ovate-oblong, 2-3.5 × ca. 1 cm, apex acute. Anthers elliptic, ca. 0.3 mm. Gynostemium 6-lobed. Capsule nearly globose, 1.2-1.5 cm in diam., dehiscing acropetally. Seeds ovoid-cordiform, ca. 3 × 3 mm. Fl. Aug-Oct, fr. Dec.

* Thickets on limestone mountain slopes; 1600–1900 m. Sichuan, Yunnan (Lijiang).