清明花 qing ming hua

Echites grandiflora Roxburgh.

Lianas to 20 m. Bark corky; young branches rusty pubescent; branchlets dark brown, pubescent to glabrous. Petiole to 3 cm; leaf blade narrowly obovate or narrowly to broadly elliptic, 6-30 X 3.5-15 cm, sparsely to densely pubescent when young, glabrous when older; lateral veins 8-20 pairs. Cymes 12-25 cm, 3-19-flowered, sparsely to densely pubescent; peduncle 2.5-9 cm; bracts leafy, pale green. Pedicel 2.5-4.5 cm. Sepals pale green, 3-6 mm. Corolla white, creamy, or pale yellow, base pale green; tube funnelform, 6.5-13 cm, glabrous inside; limb ca. 10 cm in diam., attenuate at base, sparsely to densely pubescent outside, glabrous inside; lobes suborbicular to broadly ovate, 1.7-4 cm, apex acuminate. Stamens white; filaments 3.2-6 cm; anthers 1.5-1.7 cm, included; disc ringlike, apex sparsely puberulent. Ovary tomentose. Style 7-9 cm. Follicles usually narrowly ellipsoid, 22-31 X 5-6 cm. Seeds 1.5-2.5 cm, coma 4-7 cm. Fl. spring-summer. 2n = 24.

Humid montane forests, valleys, riverbanks; 300-1500 m. SW Guangxi, S Yunnan; cultivated in Fujian, Guangdong [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam]

Cultivated as an ornamental. The young branches are used for making coarse ropes. The roots and leaves are used in the treat-ment of fractures, injury, and backache and leg pain caused by rheumatism.