四川轮环藤 si chuan lun huan teng

Cyclea sutchuenensis var. sessilis Y. C. Wu; Paracyclea sutchuenensis (Gagnepain) Yamamoto; P. sutchuenensis var. sessilis (Y. C. Wu) Yamamoto.

Vines, herbaceous, slightly woody when old, glabrous except sometimes for pubescent bracts. Branchlets slender, striate. Petiole 2-6 cm; leaf blade peltate, insertion 1-5 mm from margin, lanceolate or ovate, 5-15 × 2-5.5 cm, thinly leathery or papery, often brown when dry, base rounded, margin entire, apex acutely acuminate or caudate-acuminate, palmately 3-5-veined, prominent abaxially, reticulation slightly conspicuous. Inflorescences thyrsoid, sometimes spikelike, axillary, to 20 cm; rachis often twining, black when dry; peduncle short. Male inflorescences slender; bracts rhombic-ovate or rhombic-lanceolate, 1-1.5 mm or slightly longer, usually glabrous. Male flowers: sepals 4, connate only at base, slightly thick, elliptic or ovate-oblong, ca. 2.5 mm, apiculate; petals 4, usually connate, rarely free, 0.4-0.6 mm; synandrium ca. 1.5 mm, anthers 4. Female flowers: sepals 2, 1 rotund, margin involute, ca. 1.8 mm in diam., other conduplicate, 2-2.1 mm; petals 2, minute, less than 1 mm, adnate to base of sepals; ovary glabrous. Drupes red; endocarp ca. 7 mm, abaxially bearing 3 rows of tubercles. Fl. summer, fr. autumn.

● Forests, forest margins, shrublands. N and W Guangdong, E and NE Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, S Hunan, E and SE Sichuan, NE and SE Yunnan.