红血藤 hong xue teng

Woody climbers. Young branchlets purplish brown, sparsely puberulent, glabrescent. Stipels subulate, 3-4 mm, per­sistent; petiolules densely strigose; leaflets equal in shape or nearly so, oblong-elliptic, terminal leaflet 5-9.5 × 2-4 cm, lat­eral smaller, leathery, sparsely puberulent abaxially, glabrous and shiny adaxially, midrib prominent, impressed adaxially, raised and densely brownish strigose abaxially, lateral veins and veinlets slender, slightly raised on both surfaces, base rounded, apex abruptly contracted to a slightly blunt mucro. Panicles usually axillary, 5-10 cm, densely brownish strigose; bracts and bracteoles subulate, ca. 1 mm. Calyx ca. 4 mm, subequal to pedicel in length, densely strigose on both sides; teeth ovate, 1.5-2 mm, as long as tube, upper 2 teeth ± connate. Corolla pur­plish red; standard orbicular, 5-5.5 × 6-6.5 mm, apex 2-parted, claw ca. 2 mm; wings obovate-oblong, ca. 5 mm, base with short acute auricle on one side, claw ca. 2.5 mm; keel falcate, oblong, ca. 3.5 mm, apex rounded, base truncate, without au­ricle, claw ca. 2.5 mm. Anthers subglobose, equal in size. Ovary sessile, densely strigose along ventral suture, other parts pilose or subglabrous. Legumes obliquely oblong, 6-9 cm, 2-2.5 cm wide from middle downward, narrower in upper part, brownish villous, especially on beak and 2 sutures; stipe 1-3 mm or absent. Seeds blackish, dull, oblong, ca. 1.5 × 0.8 cm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jan.

● Wet areas in dense forests, valleys at low elevation. S Guang­dong, SW Guangxi, Hainan.