5. Tinospora sagittata (Oliver) Gagnepain, Bull. Soc. Bot. France. 55: 45. 1908.
青牛胆 qing niu dan
Herbaceous vines. Roots with small and yellow tuberous swelling. Stems slender, striate, often puberulent. Petiole 2.5-6 cm, puberulent or subglabrous, striate; leaf blade lanceolate-sagittate or sometimes lanceolate-hastate, rarely ovate or elliptic-sagittate, 7-15(-22) × 2-7.5 cm, papery to thinly leathery, usually abaxially puberulent on veins, sometimes adaxially or both surfaces glabrous, base often with deep sinus, basal lobes rounded, obtuse or mucronate, often extending backward, sometimes incurved into 2 folded lobes, rarely extending outside, apex acuminate, sometimes caudate, palmately 5-veined, reticulation prominent or not abaxially. Inflorescences axillary, often a few or many flowers fascicled, cymes, sometimes pseudopanicles, 2-10(-15) cm or sometimes longer; peduncles and pedicels filamentous; bracteoles 2, closely annexed with sepals. Male flowers: sepals 6, sometimes more, often unequal, outermost whorl minute, often ovate or lanceolate, 1-2 mm, inner whorl conspicuously larger, elliptic to broadly elliptic, obovate to broadly obovate, or narrowly lanceolate to narrowly oblong-lanceolate, to 5 mm; petals 6, lobe subrounded or broadly obovate, rarely rhomboidal, often with claw, basal margin often reflexed, 1.4-2 mm. Female flowers: sepals similar to male; petals cuneate, ca. 0.4 mm; staminodes 6, ?oblong, ca. 0.4 mm; carpels 3, subglabrous. Drupes semiglobose, 6-8 mm wide; endocarp 5-8 × 5-8 mm, abaxially rounded or obscurely ridged, smooth or sparsely weakly papillose, adaxial aperture large, broadly elliptic; condyle deeply intrusive. Fl. Apr, fr. autumn.
Forests, grasslands. N Fujian, N and W Guangdong, Guangxi, E and S Guizhou, N Hainan, W Hubei, Hunan, NE Jiangxi, Shaanxi, S Shanxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, SE Yunnan [N Vietnam].
Forman (Kew Bull. 36: 386. 1981) did not accept the following varieties.
