腺脉野木瓜 xian mai ye mu gua

Young stems and branches green, striate; old stems grayish brown; bark longitudinally fissured. Young branches axillary from winter bud scales; scales short, broad, persistent. Petiole 4--8(--12) cm; leaf blade palmately 3(--5)-foliolate; petiolules 1--4 cm; leaflets oblong to ovate-oblong, 6--10(--12) × 2.5--6(--8) cm, leathery, abaxially whitish green, adaxially green, base rounded, margin revolute, apex acute; primary veins 3; secondary veins and tertiary veinlets inconspicuous on both surfaces. Corymbose racemes 8--11 cm, 3- or 4-flowered; bracts short, broad, persistent. Male flowers: pedicel 1.5--4 cm, slender. Sepals 6, purplish red; outer 3 sepals elliptic, 1.4--1.8 × 0.5--0.9 cm; inner 3 sepals linear to narrowly oblong, 11--18 × 2--3 mm. Petals absent. Filaments connate into a tube; anthers free, 5--6 mm; connective apical appendage apiculate, ca. 1 mm. Pistillodes small, concealed within filament tube. Female flowers not seen. Fruit yellow at maturity, ellipsoid, ca. 6 × 3 cm. Seeds black, broadly ovoid, shiny. Fl. May, fr. Oct.

* Dense forest on mountain slopes; 1300--1600 m. Zhejiang (Longquan Xian, Suichang Xian).