18. Diplectria (Blume) Reichenbach, Deut. Bot. Herb.-Buch. 174. 1841.
藤牡丹属 teng mu dan shu
Dissochaeta sect. Diplectria Blume, Flora 14: 501. 1831.
Climbers or scandent shrubs. Stems squamose, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves shortly petiolate; secondary veins 1 or 2 on each side of midvein, margin entire. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, cymose paniculate, sometimes bracteate. Flowers small, 4-merous. Hypanthium tubular-campanulate to campanulate, squamose, glabrous or pubescent, apex truncate or inconspicuous. Petals white, ovate to oblong, glabrous. Stamens 8, whorls unequal in shape and length. Longer stamens with anthers oblong to linear-oblong, base abaxially 2-tuberculate and abaxially spurred or not, apex usually beaked. Shorter stamens abortive; anthers rhomboid-ovate, usually papery, abaxially long caudate-spurred, adaxially 2-setose at base. Ovary inferior, ovate, apex truncate. Style filiform; stigma apiculate. Fruit a berry, subglobular to ovate, apex often with persistent calyx lobes. Seeds numerous, cuneate, small, angular.
Between eight and eleven species: China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Vietnam; one species in China.
Diplectria is often considered as a synonym of Dissochaeta Blume (see Renner et al., Fl. Thailand 7(3): 419-420. 2001). Dissochaeta when including Diplectria has ca. 40 species and a similar geographic distribution.
