秤钩风 cheng gou feng

Cocculus affinis Oliver, Hooker’s Icon. Pl. t. 1760. 1888; Diploclisia chinensis Merrill.

Woody vines to 8 m. Old branches reddish brown or dark brown, lenticels many, longitudinally dehiscent, glabrous; current year’s branches yellowish, striate, axillary buds 2, upper bud inserted above lower. Petiole almost equal to or longer than lamina; leaf blade not or only slightly peltate, triangular-oblate or rhombic-oblate, sometimes rhomboidal or broadly ovate, 3.5-9 cm or longer, slightly wider than long, leathery, base subtruncate to shallowly cordate, sometimes rotund or sharply mucronate, margin conspicuously or inconspicuously undulate, apex mucronate or obtuse and apiculate, palmately 5-veined, with reticulation prominent on both surfaces. Inflorescences superaxillary on leafy shoots, in series with one above other, umbel-like cymes, 3- to many flowered; peduncles straight, 2-2.5 cm. Male flowers: sepals elliptic to broadly ovate, 2.5-3 mm, outer whorl ca. 1.5 mm wide, inner whorl 2-2.5 mm wide; petals ovate-rhombic, with sides folded inward at base around filaments; stamens 2-2.5 mm. Female flowers unknown. Drupes red, obovate, 8-10 × ca. 7 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul-Sep.

● Forest margins, sparse forests; ca. 400 m. Anhui, Fujian (Yong’an), E and N Guangdong, N Guangxi, N Guizhou, W Hubei, NW Hunan, Jiangxi, E and SE Sichuan, Yunnan, E and S Zhejiang.

The supra-axillary inflorescences are unique at least among the Chinese members of the Menispermaceae.