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Chinese Plant Names | Family List | Cucurbitaceae | Gynostemma

Gynostemma compressum X. X. Chen et D. R. Liang

扁果绞股蓝

Description from Flora of China

Stems slender, sulcate, glabrous. Tendrils filiform, apex usually bifid. Leaves pedate, with 7 leaflets; petiole 5-12 cm, glabrous; leaflets abaxially gray-green, adaxially green, elliptic or elliptic-ovate, membranous, base cuneate, margin crenulate, apex acuminate or acute, abaxially sparsely puberulent along midrib and lateral veins, adaxially sparsely pilose, middle leaflets 3.6-6.5 × 2-2.25 cm, lateral leaflets smaller, outside oblique; petiolule 3-5 mm. Plants dioecious. Male flowers in panicles, axillary, 2-5 cm; peduncle filiform, 8-16 mm, glabrous; bracteoles subulate, ca. 1.5 mm; pedicels 2-5 mm; flowers greenish, ca. 1.5 mm in diam.; calyx segments triangular, ca. 0.8 × 0.5 mm; filaments very short, connate; anthers ovoid. Female flowers solitary or paired, axillary; peduncle filiform, 5-9 mm, glabrous; pedicels 5-10 mm; calyx segments ca. 1.3 × 0.4 mm; corolla segments linear-lanceolate, 2-3 × ca. 0.4 mm, apex caudate-acuminate; ovary 2-locular, each locule with 1 ovule; styles 2, free; stigmas bifid. Fruit baccate, compressed, obtriangular, 5-8 × 5-7 mm, glabrous, apex with persistent perianth and styles; fruit stalk filiform, 1.3-2.5 cm. Seeds brownish, obtriangular, ca. 3 mm, apex ca. 3.5 mm in diam., both surfaces tuberculate, margin crenate and sulcate. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Mar-May.

This species is used in Chinese herbal medicine by the people of Guangxi.

● Forests, moist limestone foothills; below 400 m. Guangxi (Longzhou).


 

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