Volume 5 > Part 3 > Year 1991 > Page 322 > Menispermaceae > Stephania

15. Stephania glabra (Roxb.) Mierswfo-0001238643

Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 3, 18: 14. 1866; Diels in Pflanzenr. Menisp.: 272. 1910; Craib in Fl. Siam. En. 1: 69. 1925; Fonnan, Kew Bull. 43: 384. 1988.— Cissampelos glabra Roxb., Fl. Ind. Ed. 2, 3: 840. 1832.

Accepted Name : Stephania rotunda Lour.
Fl. Cochinch.: 608. 1790.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Slender climber with colourless sap, entirely glabrous, stems arising froma large exposed tuber; tubers of old plants interconnected; perennial stems, up to over 10 m long. Leaves mostly broadly ovate, margin often slightly lobed, 9–22(–25) by 9–22(–25) cm, base truncate to slightly cordate, apex usually, ± obtuse, flower surface minutely papillose, glaucous, with reticulation often drying pale, submembranous; petiole 6–25 cm. Male inflorescences an axillary umbelliform cyme, 3–12 cm long. Male flowers on pedicels, 2–3 mm; sepals 6, green or yellowish, narrowly obovate, 2–2.5 mm long, subequa 1; petals 3, orange, obdeltoid-obovate, 1–1.25 mm long, sometimes with 2 collateral inner swellings (± glands). Synanarium ca 1.5 mm long. Female inflorescence: much more condensed than the male, but attaining 17 cm long in fruit. Female flowers asymmetrical, on pedicels which elongate, 2.5–4 mm in fruit; sepal 1, elliptic, 1 mm long; petals 2, suborbicular, 1 mm long; carpels subovoid, 1 mm long. Drupes obovate in outline, 6 mm long; endocarp perforate, dorsally bearing 4 rows of 13–17 hooked projections.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai (Doi Ang Khang, Doi Chiang Dao, Doi Inthanon, Doi Suthep, Fang, Ban Pong), Tak (Pha Wo); EASTERN: Chaiyaphum (Ban Nam Phrom); SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi (Si Sawat).

Distribution : NW India, Bangladesh (type), Himalayas to Assam and Burma.

Ecology : Tubers growing between limestone rocks in evergreen forests, sometimes by a streams, also on sandstone, at 350–2,000 m alt.

Vernacular : Phanang nang (ผะนังนั่ง)(Northern).