刺儿瓜 ci er gua

Branches slender, slightly pilose when young, ultimately glabrous. Petiole slender, 2-5 cm; leaf blade broadly oblong or suborbicular, 2.5-7 × 3-7 cm, membranous, glabrous, 5-lobed, base broadly cordate, apex acute or obtuse, with a gland at apex of lowest 2 lobes. Tendrils filiform, 2-fid, pilose or glabrous. Male inflorescence paniculate, to 12 cm; rachis and pedicels filiform; pedicels 1-1.5 cm; calyx segments linear-lanceolate; corolla segments pale yellow-green, narrowly lanceolate, 6-8 × 0.8-1.2 mm, glabrous, apex long caudate; stamens inserted at base of corolla tube, connate in pairs, 1 free; filaments ca. 0.8 mm; anthers yellow, ca. 1 mm; connective caudate at apex, 1-1.2 mm. Female flowers solitary; pedicels filiform, 10-15 mm; ovary densely verrucose. Fruit yellow-green, cylindric, 3.5-4 cm, covered with slender spines, spines 5-7 mm, circumscissile when mature. Seeds irregularly ovate, margin irregularly dentate, ca. 10 × 7 mm, with membranous wing at apex, wing ca. 10 mm, apex lobate. Fl. Sep, fr. Oct.

● Forest margins, thickets under forests; 1000-1400 m. NW and SE Yunnan.

Lower Taxa

• Bolbostemma biglandulosum var. biglandulosum
• Bolbostemma biglandulosum var. sinuatolobulatum C. Y. Wu