粉防己 fen fang ji

Herbaceous vines, 1-3 m high. Main root fleshy, cylindrical. Branchlets longitudinally striate. Petiole 3-7 cm; leaf blade narrowly peltate, broadly triangular, sometimes triangular-rotund, 4-7 × 5-8.5 cm, papery, both surfaces pubescent or only abaxially, base slightly emarginate or truncate, apex with a mucronate acumen, palmately 9- or 10-veined, more slender, reticulation very dense, conspicuous. Inflorescences capitate; bracts small or very small. Male flowers: sepals 4 or sometimes 5, usually obovate-elliptic, including claw ca. 0.8 mm; petals 5, fleshy, ca. 0.6 mm, margin involute; synandrium ca. 0.8 mm, anthers 4. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male flowers. Drupes red, subglobose when mature; endocarp ca. 5.5 mm in diam., abaxially bearing 4 rows of ornamentation, 2 inner rows columnar and very prominent; condyle usually not perforate. Fl. summer, fr. autumn.

● Shrublands at village margins, open fields, roadsides. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang.