华山蒌 hua shan lou

Chavica sinensis (Champion) Bentham, J. Bot. (Hooker) 6: 116. 1854; Piper sinense (Champion ex Bentham) C. de Candolle (1868), not P. chinense Miquel (1845).

Climbers to more than 5 m, dioecious. Young stems densely softly pubescent, glabrescent. Petiole 1-1.5 cm, densely pubescent; leaf blade ovate, ovate-oblong, or oblong, 8-15 × 3.5-6.5 cm, papery, abaxially pubescent, especially along veins, adaxially glabrous or sparsely pubescent at base, base deeply cordate, basal lobes often overlapping, ± symmetric, apex obtuse or acute; veins 7, usually opposite, apical pair arising 5-1 mm above base; reticulate veins conspicuous. Spikes leaf-opposed. Male spikes 2.5-4 cm × 4-5 mm; peduncle shorter than petioles, roughly pubescent; rachis glabrous; bracts orbicular, ca. 1.2 mm wide, peltate, glabrous, ± sessile. Stamens 2. Female spikes to 3 cm in fruit; rachis and bracts as in male spikes. Stigmas usually 3. Drupe globose, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., partly connate to rachis. Fl. Mar-Jun.

* Forests, along streams, on trees; circa 400 m. S to SW Guangdong, Guangxi, SE Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan (Emei Xian)

This species is much better known as Piper sinense but unfortunately that name must be treated as a later homonym of P. chinense (ICBN, Art. 53.3), so a new name has had to be given.