瑶山野木瓜 yao shan ye mu gua

Vines to 30 m. Monoecious. Branchlets striate. Petiole 15--18 cm; leaf blade palmately 5--7-foliolate; petiolules slender, 2.5--5.5 cm; leaflets oblong to oblanceolate-oblong, 12--17 × 4--6.5 cm, subleathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially green, base obtuse to subrounded, apex abruptly contracted to a ca. 3.5 cm caudate tip; primary veins 3, inconspicuous; secondary veins ca. 7 pairs, anastomosing; tertiary veinlets abaxially crowded. Racemes 12--19 cm, 4- or 5-flowered; bracts persistent. Petals absent but sometimes female flowers with 2 linear ones, ca. 4 mm. Male flowers: sepals pale yellow, adaxially with purple stripes, ± fleshy; outer 3 sepals 2--2.5 × 0.5--0.6 cm; inner 3 sepals ca. 2 mm wide. Filaments ca. 3 mm, connate into a tube; anthers ca. 5 mm; connective apical appendage hornlike, ca. 2.5 mm. Pistillodes 3, small, concealed within filament tube. Female flowers: outer 3 sepals ca. 3.2 × 0.8 cm; inner 3 sepals 3.5--4 mm wide. Staminodes 6, linear, ca. 2 mm. Carpels ovoid-terete. Stigma oblique. Fruit oblong to ellipsoid, ca. 14 × 4--5 cm. Seeds numerous. Fl. Apr, fr. Nov.

* Open forest on mountain slopes. Guangxi (Dayao Shan, Yongfu Xian).