何首乌 he shou wu

Herbs perennial. Root tuber black-brown, narrowly elliptic, large, ligneous. Stems twining, 2-4 cm, much branched, striate, glabrous, ligneous at base. Petiole 1.5-3 cm; leaf blade ovate or narrowly ovate, 3-7 × 2-5 cm, both surfaces glabrous or abaxially papillate along veins, base cordate or subcordate, margin entire, apex acuminate; ocrea 3-5 mm, membranous, oblique, glabrous. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, paniculate, spreading, 10-20 cm; peduncle minutely papillate; bracts triangular-ovate, papillate, apex acute, each 2-4-flowered. Pedicel 2-3 mm, slender, articulate at base, elongate in fruit. Perianth white or greenish; tepals elliptic, unequal in size, outer 3 larger, accrescent and winged on abaxial surface in fruit; wings decurrent below to pedicels on abaxial surface in fruit; wings decurrent below to pedicels. Perianth (including wings) in fruit nearly orbicular, 6-7 mm in diam. Stamens 8; filaments dilated at base. Styles 3, very short; stigmas capitate. Achenes included in persistent perianth, black-brown, shiny, ovoid, trigonous, 2.5-3 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Oct, fr. Jul-Nov.

Mountain slopes, rock crevices, thickets in valleys; 200-3000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, ?Hebei, ?Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan].