戟状铁线莲 ji zhuang tie xian lian

Vines woody. Branches shallowly 8-grooved, glabrous; bracts of axillary floral buds of old branches narrowly triangular to ovate, 6--8 mm, papery, sparsely puberulous toward apex. Leaves pinnate, 5--7-foliolate, rarely ternate, glabrous; petiole 2--3.5 cm; leaflet blades of lower pair narrowly ovate, 4.5--5.5 × 3.8--4.5 cm, subleathery, 3-parted or unequally 2-parted, base subcordate, margin entire, apex acute to ± obtuse; leaf blade of upper pair triangular-linear to narrowly triangular, 2.5--5 × 0.9--1.4 cm, base subcordate to truncate, margin entire and undivided; midvein abaxially ± prominent. Flowers 2--7, arising from axillary buds, 2.5--4 cm in diam. Pedicel 4--11.5 cm, pubescent. Sepals 4, white, spreading, oblanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, 1.3--2.2 × 0.4--0.9 cm, abaxially densely appressed puberulous, adaxially glabrous, apex obtuse to rounded. Stamens ca. 8 mm, glabrous; anthers narrowly oblong, ca. 2 mm, apex obtuse or obscurely apiculate. Ovaries pubescent. Style ca. 7 mm, densely villous. Fl. Apr.

* Slopes in valleys. N to NE Sichuan.