大白药 bai yao niu nai cai

Lianas stout, woody, to 10 m. Branchlets pale green, glabrous or distal parts minutely puberulent, hollow when dry. Petiole 3-6 cm, pubescent; leaf blade ovate, 7-11 × 5-8 cm, glabrescent or sparsely hairy and denser along veins adaxially, base cuneate to subcordate, apex subacute and mucronate; lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs. Inflorescences glomer-ate, many flowered; peduncle ca. 2.5 cm, pubescent. Pedicel ca. 1 cm, pubescent. Sepals ovate, pubescent, margin translucent and ciliate; basal glands 5 or more. Corolla white, subcampanulate, ca. 1.2 cm; tube pilose opposite stamens, throat with dense reflexed pubescence; lobes oblong-lanceolate, longer than tube, pilose inside except at margin. Corona lobes subulate or lanceolate, base broadened and fleshy, shorter than anthers. Anther appendages rounded; pollinia subreniform. Stigma head produced into a long beak exserted from anthers. Follicles oblong-lanceolate, ca. 9 × 4 cm, smooth. Seeds ovate, flattened, ca. 1.7 × 0.8 cm, margin membranous; coma ca. 3 cm. Fl. summer to autumn.

Dense forests; ca. 2000 m. Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan [India].