香港瓜馥木 xiang gang gua fu mu

Melodorum uonicum Dunn, J. Bot. 48: 323. 1910; Fissistigma clementis Merrill.

Climbers to 5 m tall. Branches glabrous. Petiole 5-10 mm, blackish and minutely transversely wrinkled when dried; leaf blade oblong, 4-20 × 1-5 cm, papery, abaxially yellowish, very sparsely puberulent, and reddish yellow when dry, adaxially glabrous, secondary veins 8-12[-18] on each side of midvein and adaxially flat to slightly prominent, tertiary veins inconspicuously raised, base rounded to cuneate, apex acute. Inflorescences axillary or subaxillary, sometimes ± grouped into terminal thyrses, 1- or 2-flowered; peduncle 1-3 mm; bracts minute, scalelike. Flowers fragrant. Pedicel ca. 2 cm, minutely appressed pubescent, minutely bracteolate below middle. Sepals ovate-triangular, ca. 2 mm, outside pubescent, inside glabrous. Petals yellow; outer petals ovate-triangular, ca. 2.4 × 1.4 cm, thickened, outside fulvous pubescent, inside glabrous, apex obtuse; inner petals lanceolate, 1.2-1.4 × ca. 0.6 cm, inside basally concave and apically convex. Stamens oblong; connectives 3-angular. Carpels oblong, pubescent; ovules 9-16 per carpel, in 2 series; styles cylindric, short, glabrous; stigmas apically entire. Monocarp stipes short, thick; monocarps globose to shortly cylindric, 4-5 × ca. 4 cm, pubescent to glabrescent. Seeds 9-16 per monocarp, in 2 series. Fl. Mar-Jun, fr. Jun-Dec.

Forest margins, scrub; 100-800 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan [Indonesia].

The fruit of Fissistigma uonicum are edible; its leaves are used as yeast powder to start fermentation when making liquor in Guangxi and Hainan.