白钩藤 bai gou teng

Nauclea sessilifructus (Roxburgh) D. Dietrich.

Large lianas, height unknown. Young stems slender, quadrangular, sparsely puberulent or hirtellous to glabrous. Petiole 5-10 mm, glabrous; leaf blade drying thinly leathery, ovate, elliptic, or elliptic-oblong, 8-12 × 4-6.5 cm, glabrous on both surfaces or abaxially puberulent on principal veins, often glaucous abaxially, base cuneate to rounded, apex acute or acuminate; secondary veins 4-7 pairs, usually with pilosulous domatia; stipules deciduous, ligulate to lanceolate, 7-10 mm, 2-lobed for 2/3 or more, glabrous to densely puberulent, lobes narrowly triangular, acute. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, heads solitary or in groups of 5-15, strigillose to glabrescent; peduncles 3-5.5 cm, simple or often branched to 1 order; flowering heads 5-10 mm in diam. across calyces, 25-35 mm in diam. across corollas; bracteoles linear or subspatulate, 2-3 mm. Flowers sessile. Calyx with hypanthium portion obconic, 1.5-2 mm, densely strigose to sericeous; limb densely strigillose to pilosulous, with tube 1-2 mm; lobes oblong to triangular, 0.25-1 mm, obtuse to acute. Corolla yellowish white, salverform; tube 6-10 mm, outside glabrous, pilosulous, or sericeous; lobes oblong, ca. 2 mm, outside sericeous or hirtellous, rounded to obtuse. Fruiting head 25-35 mm in diam. Fruit sessile, fusiform, 10-14 mm, sericeous; seeds not seen. Fl. and fr. Mar-Dec.

Dense forests or thickets in valleys; 300-1500 m. Guangxi, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam].

This species was illustrated by Ridsdale (Blumea 24: 91, f. 11. 1978).