鸡矢藤 ji shi teng

Gentiana scandens Loureiro; Paederia chinensis Hance; P. dunniana H. Léveillé; P. esquirolii H. Léveillé; P. laxiflora Merrill ex H. L. Li; P. mairei H. Léveillé; P. scandens (Loureiro) Merrill; P. scandens f. mairei (H. Léveillé) Nakai; P. scandens var. mairei (H. Léveillé) H. Hara; P. scandens var. tomentosa (Blume) Handel-Mazzetti; P. tomentosa Blume; P. tomentosa var. glabra Kurz; P. tomentosa var. mairei (H. Léveillé) H. Léveillé; P. stenophylla Merrill.

Vines, to 5 m; stems glabrous to densely puberulent, hirtellous, or pilosulous often becoming glabrescent, drying gray to brown. Leaves opposite or rarely ternate; petiole 0.5-9 cm, glabrous to densely hirtellous or pilosulous; blade drying papery to subleathery, ovate, ovate-oblong, lanceolate, lanceolate-elliptic, or elliptic, (1-)5-9(-21) × 1-4(-9) cm, adaxially glabrous to puberulent at least on principal veins, abaxially glabrous to puberulent, hirtellous, or strigillose at least on principal veins, base cuneate, rounded, truncate, or sometimes cordulate to cordate, margins flat, apex acute or acuminate; secondary veins 4-6 pairs; stipules generally persistent, triangular to ovate, 1.5-6 mm, obtuse to acute, acuminate, or rarely bifid. Inflorescences axillary and/or terminal, paniculate, thyrsiform, corymbiform, or cymose, pyramidal to rounded, 5-100 cm, branched to 2-5 orders with higher order axes dichotomous or often scorpioid, hirtellous, strigillose, or glabrous, pedunculate; bracts lanceolate to triangular, 0.8-3 mm; pedicels to 1.5 mm. Flowers sessile to pedicellate in dichotomous to scorpioid, lax to somewhat congested cymules. Calyx glabrous to densely puberulent; hypanthium portion turbinate to ellipsoid, 0.8-2 mm; limb deeply lobed; lobes triangular, 0.4-1 mm. Corolla pale purple, grayish pink, lilac, or grayish white, funnelform, outside densely mealy puberulent or mealy tomentulose; tube (5-)7-10(-17) × 2-6 mm, without slits; lobes broadly triangular to ovate, 1-2 mm, acute. Fruit globose, 4-7 × 4-7 mm, glabrescent, drying gray to yellow; pyrenes concavo-convex to plano-convex. Fl. May-Oct, fr. Jul-Dec.

Forests, forest margins, thickets in ravines and on mountain slopes; 200-2000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bangladesh, Bhutan, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, N Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; also occasionally cultivated, and naturalized in United States (Florida) and perhaps Sri Lanka].

Paederia foetida is naturalized in a few places around the world and apparently quite weedy wherever it grows; in particular, it has been reported as an adventive and sometimes a problem weed in Florida, where it is called "skunk vine."

Puff (Opera Bot. Belg. 3: 207-292. 1991) substantially changed and clarified the application of this name; see the discussion under the genus above. Paederia foetida as circumscribed by Puff (and here) is widespread and morphologically widely variable but with continuous morphological variation, as documented in detail (loc. cit.: 223-224, f. 4, f. 5). W. C. Ko (in FRPS 71(2): 118-119. 1999) recognized two varieties within this species (treated as P. scandens), with the stems and leaves glabrous or subglabrous in var. scandens and subglabrous to pubescent in var. tomentosa; Ko reported var. scandens from throughout the range of this species in China and var. tomentosa only from "Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Hainan, Guangxi, Yunnan." Puff synonymized these based on his conclusion that pubescence varies continuously within this species and thus does not distinguish separate evolutionary lineages.

Puff synonymized Paederia stenophylla with P. foetida, and this name is provisionally listed in synonymy here. The name P. stenophylla seems to have been applied by W. C. Ko (loc. cit.: 115) at least in part to plants that Puff treated as P. pertomentosa rather than P. foetida, and Puff reported that he did not see the type of P. stenophylla; this situation may deserve re-consideration, but that work is outside the scope of this current project.

The name Paederia dunniana from Guizhou was apparently overlooked by Puff; this was reported by Lauener and Ferguson (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 32: 112. 1972) to be a synonym of "P. scandens," which corresponds to P. foetida here, and this name is accordingly synonymized here provisionally.