棱茎八月瓜 leng jing ba yue gua

Stems brown to dull brown, winged; wings 5, ca. 1 mm wide; lenticels numerous, pale brown, elliptic to fusiform. Petiole 3--9 cm, striate; leaf blade palmately 5--7-foliolate; petiolules slightly angular, unequal, lateral ones 1--2.5 cm, terminal one 2--4 cm; leaflets elliptic, oblong, or obovate-oblong, 7--12 × 3--5 cm, leathery, abaxially pale yellowish green, adaxially dark green and shiny, base rounded to rarely cuneate, margin slightly revolute, apex rounded and mucronate; primary veins 3; secondary veins 5--7 pairs; tertiary veinlets and secondary veins prominent on both surfaces. Inflorescences of several fascicled racemes; bracts persistent, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 7 × 2.5 mm, scaly; peduncle 1.5--3 cm. Male flowers: pedicel 0.8--1.5 cm. Sepals purplish red, subfleshy; outer 3 sepals oblong to oblanceolate, 12--13 × 4.5--5.5 mm, apex obtuse; inner 3 sepals 11--12 × ca. 3 mm. Petals suborbicular to obovate, 1--1.5 mm in diam. Stamens straight, 9--10 mm; filaments slightly broad, complanate; anthers ca. 4 mm; connective apical appendage minute. Pistillodes clavate, ca. 2.5 mm. Female flowers: sepals purplish red; outer 3 sepals ovate-orbicular, 1.5--2.1 × 1--1.2 cm; inner 3 sepals oblong, smaller. Carpels clavate. Fruit ob-long-terete, ca. 7 × 3 cm. Seeds blackish brown. Fl. Apr--May, fr. Aug--Sep.

* Sparse to dense forests, by streams along valleys; 800--1500 m. Guizhou, Sichuan.