粉绿藤 fen lü teng

Woody vines up to 7 m or longer. Branches and branchlets rugosely striate, branchlets slender, pubescent. Petiole slender and erect, 1.5-4 cm, glabrous, apex slightly swollen and twining; leaf blade ovate, rarely broadly ovate or lanceolate, 5-9 × 2-5 cm, thinly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, base rounded or sometimes subtruncate, apex acuminate, palmately 3-5-veined, basal pair of veins often slender or inconspicuous, reticulate veins fine, raised on both surfaces. Inflorescences racemose or narrowly paniculate, 1-10 cm; rachis slender and pubescent; bracteoles 2, closely adnate to sepals. Male flowers: sepals in 2 whorls of 3, outer whorl oblong-lanceolate, ca. 1.1 mm, sparsely puberulent outside, inner whorl broadly elliptic or broadly ovate-elliptic, 1.5-1.7 mm, puberulent on midrib outside; petals 6, fleshy, lanceolate, 1.6-1.7 mm, with basal inflexed auricles clasping opposite stamen; stamens 6, 1.3-1.6 mm, anthers large and dehiscing with transverse slit. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male flower but usually smaller; staminodes 6; carpels 3(or 4). Drupes oblate; endocarp elliptic-reniform, crustaceous, 1.3-1.4 × ca. 1 cm, rugose on surface. Fl. Sep-Oct, fr. Feb.

● Forests. C, N, and W Guangdong, E and N Guangxi.

An unpublished IUCN list recorded this species as vulnerable: VU(A1c,2c;B2c).