钮子瓜 niu zi gua

Melothria bodinieri H. Léveillé, Fl. Kouy-Tchéou, 122. 1914-1915; M. perpusilla Cogniaux var. subtruncata Cogniaux; Pilogyne bodinieri (H. Léveillé) W. J. de Wilde & Duyfjes.

Plants scandent. Stem and branches slender, sulcate-angular, glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Petiole slender, 2-5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade broadly ovate or rarely triangular-ovate, 4-12 × 3-10 cm, membranous, abaxially subglabrous, adaxially scabrous, basal sinus semicircular, rarely subtruncate, margin undulate-denticulate, undivided or sometimes shortly 3-5-lobed, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Tendrils filiform, simple, glabrous. Plants monoecious. Male flowers often 3-9 in a subcapitate or cymose inflorescence; peduncle slender, 1-4 cm, glabrous; pedicels 1-4 mm; calyx tube campanulate, 2-3 × 1-2 mm, glabrous or puberulent; segments narrowly triangular, ca. 0.5 mm; corolla white; segments ovate or ovate-oblong, 2-2.5 mm, abaxially puberulent, apex subacute; stamens two 2-celled, one 1-celled, sometimes all 2-celled, inserted at base of calyx tube; filaments ca. 2 mm, puberulent; anthers ovoid, 0.6-0.7 mm. Female flowers solitary, rarely a few in an umbel; ovary ovoid. Fruiting pedicel slender, 0.5-1 cm, glabrous; fruit red when ripe, baccate, globose, 1-1.4 cm in diam., smooth. Seeds ovate-oblong, compressed, smooth, ca. 5 × 3-3.5 mm, marginate. Fl. Apr-Aug, fr. Aug-Nov.

Forest margins or roadsides on mountain slopes; 500-1000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].

The Chinese record of Zehneria maysorensis (Wight & Arnott) Arnott (FRPS 73(1): 173. 1986) is based on a misidentification of Z. bodinieri.