五月瓜藤 wu yue gua teng

Evergreen. Stems and branches grayish brown, striate. Bud bracts persistent, broad, scaly. Petiole long; leaf blade palmately (3--)5--7(--9)-foliolate; petiolules 0.5--2.5 cm; leaflets 3--13 × 0.3--5 cm, subleathery to leathery, abaxially glaucous and densely very minutely papillose, adaxially green and shiny, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acuminate, acute, or obtuse, sometimes emarginate; secondary veins 6--10 pairs, tertiary veinlets and secondary veins conspicuously prominent on both surfaces or abaxially slightly prominent and adaxially inconspicuous. Racemes several, short; peduncle short, 0.8--2 cm. Male flowers: pedicel 1--1.5 cm. Outer 3 sepals linear-oblong, 1--1.5 × 0.3--0.4 cm, apex obtuse; inner 3 sepals smaller. Petals suborbicular, less than 1 mm in diam. Stamens straight, ca. 1 cm; filaments terete; anthers linear; connective apical appendage apiculate, ca. 0.7 mm. Pistillodes small, subulate. Female flowers: pedicel 3.5--5 cm. Sepals purplish red; outer 3 sepals obovate-orbicular to broadly ovate, 14--16 × 7--9 mm; inner 3 sepals smaller. Petals ovate-triangular, ca. 0.4 mm wide. Staminodes sessile, ca. 0.7 mm. Carpels clavate. Stigma capitate, cleft. Fruit purple at maturity, oblong, 5--9 cm, apex rounded and apiculate. Seeds ellipsoid, 5--8 × 4--5 mm; seed coat brownish black, shiny. Fl. Apr--Jun, fr. Aug--Oct.

Mixed forest on mountain slopes, edge of forests, hillsides, along valleys, by streams; 1000--2700 m. Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, E Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

The fruits are edible, and the roots and stems are used medicinally.