蝙蝠葛 bian fu ge

Menispermum chinense Kundu & S. Guha; M. dauricum var. pauciflorum Franchet; M. dauricum var. pilosum C. K. Schneider; M. miersii Kundu & S. Guha.

Herbaceous deciduous vines. Neck of rootstock brown, vertical, new stems from subapical buds, slender, striate, usually glabrous. Petiole 3-10[-13.5] cm or slightly longer, striate; leaf blade usually cordate-oblate in outline, usually shallowly 3-9-lobed, 3-12 × 3-12 cm, papery or submembranous, glaucous abaxially, usually glabrous on both surfaces, sometimes abaxially pubescent, base cordate to subtruncate, margin entire, palmately 9-12-veined, 3-5 veins extending to base and slender, all prominent abaxially. Inflorescences paniculate, solitary or paired, 20-flowered with flowers in mostly sessile, sometimes umbel-like fascicles; peduncle slender, 2-17 cm; bracts ± oblong, almost as long as secondary peduncles; pedicels slender, 5-10 mm. Male flowers: sepals 4-8, membranous, greenish yellow, oblanceolate to obovate-elliptic, 1.4-3.5 mm; petals 6-8 or up to 9-12, fleshy, concave, shortly clawed, 1.5-2.5 mm; stamens 12-18, (0.6-)1.5-3 mm, usually longer than sepals. Female flowers: perianth as in male; staminodes 6-12, ca. 1 mm; carpels inserted on a distinct 0.5-1 mm stalk. Drupes purplish black; endocarp broadly crescent-moon-shaped, ca. 10 mm wide and 8 mm high, base sinuate, ca. 3 mm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.

Shrublands at roadsides, open forests; below 800 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Hubei (Baokang), Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Russia (S Siberia)].

Two recently described species based on single collections from N China (Menispermum chinense) and from Russia (M. miersii) differ only in minor differences of indumentum and other small quantitative characters and do not seem worthy of recognition.

Kundu and Guha (Adansonia n.s. 20: 225. 1998) suggested that Menispermum mexicanum Rose is only varietally distinct from M. dauricum.

Some collections suggest a rhizomatous rootstock.

The specific epithet is often misspelled as "dahuricum."