云南薯蓣 yun nan shu yu

Tubers vertical, cylindric; transverse section white. Stem twining to left, grayish woolly pubescent, glabrescent. Leaves alternate, simple; petiole 4--11 cm; leaf blade reniform to orbicular, 7--15 × 10--18 cm, adaxially glabrescent, abaxially densely pubescent, basal veins 9, prominent, base shallowly to deeply cordate with narrow sinus, apex shortly acuminate. Male thyrse solitary, to at least 10 cm, grayish to tawny tomentose. Male flowers: in pedunculate, ± 1-sided, dense cymules of 3--5; perianth lobes ovate- or oblong-triangular, ca. 2 × 1 mm; stamens 6, inserted at base of perianth lobes, filaments nearly as long as anthers, anthers dorsifixed, introrse. Female spikes 9--27 cm. Capsule reflexed, oblong, 2.5--3 cm, densely pubescent, base cordate, apex emarginate; wings 0.8--2 cm wide, strongly undulate. Seeds inserted near base of capsule, sometimes only 1 fertile; wing pointing toward capsule apex. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Sep--Oct.

* Scrub forests, forest margins, mountain slopes; 1000--2800 m. Guizhou, Yunnan.