马山地不容 ma shan di bu rong

Vines. Stems and branches relatively stout, longitudinally striate. Petiole usually shorter than leaf blade, rarely slightly longer; leaf blade triangular-rotund, 8-18 cm, length subequal to or slightly shorter than width, papery, base subtruncate, rarely slightly rounded or emarginate, margin entire or repand dentate, sometimes horny, apex often mucronate, obtuse with a finely mucronate acumen, often palmately (9 or)10(or 11)-veined, relatively stout, fine reticulation brown abaxially when dry, very conspicuous. Inflorescences compound umbelliform cymes, axillary or on short axillary branches with reduced leaves, slightly fleshy. Male peduncle 3-8 cm; umbellet pedicel 5-8, 3-3.5 cm; bracts linear or occasionally foliaceous. Male flowers: sepals 6 in 2 whorls, yellowish green, narrowly elliptic to sublanceolate, 1.9-2 × ca. 0.6 mm; petals orangish yellow, broadly cuneate, 0.6-0.7 mm, base thickened, imbricate, apex subtruncate or slightly repand; synandrium ca. 1 mm. Female inflorescences condensed to capitula; peduncle relatively stout; umbellet pedicel extremely short when blooming and slightly extended when fruiting. Female flowers: sepal 1, minute and scalelike; petals 2, orangish yellow, slightly large. Drupes red, broadly obovoid; endocarp 7.5-8 × ca. 6 mm, with columnar ornamentation, each row of 18-20. Fl. May, fr. Aug.

● Rock fissures on limestone mountains. Guangxi (Du’an, Mashan, Yishan).

The tuberous rootstock of Stephania mashanica is huge and contains a large amount of the alkaloid L-dicentrine.

An unpublished IUCN report listed this species as vulnerable: VU(A1c,2c;B2c).