1 MENISPERMACEAE 防己科 fang ji ke Luo Xianrui (罗献瑞 Lo Hsien-shui)1, Chen Tao (陈涛)2; Michael G. Gilbert3 1 South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 723 Xingke Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510650, People’s Republic of China. 2 Shenzhen Fairylake Botanical Garden, 160 Xianhu Road, Liantang, Luohu District, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518004, People’s Republic of China. 3 Missouri Botanical Garden c/o Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AE, United Kingdom. Climbing or twining vines, rarely erect shrubs or small trees; indumentum of simple hairs, often absent. Stems striate, without spines; wood often with radial pith rays. Leaves alternate, spiral; stipules absent; petiole swollen at base and apex; leaf blade simple, sometimes palmately lobed, rarely trifoliolate, venation often palmate, less often pinnate. Inflorescences axillary, sometimes from old wood, rarely superaxillary or terminal, often umbelliform cymes, rarely reduced to single flower or flowers in a head on a discoid receptacle, arranged in thyrses, compound umbels, or racemelike; bracts usually small, rarely leafy (female Cocculus). Flowers unisexual (plants dioecious), usually small, inconspicuous, mostly pedicellate. Sepals often in whorls of (2 or)3(or 4), rarely reduced to 1 (female Stephania), sometimes spirally arranged (Hypserpa, Menispermum), free or less often connate, imbricate or valvate. Petals usually 3 or 6 in 1 or 2 whorls, rarely 2 or 4, sometimes reduced to 1 or absent, usually free, rarely connate, imbricate or valvate. Stamens (2–)6–8(to many); filaments free or connate, sometimes stamens completely fused into synandrium; anthers 1- or 2-locular or apparently 4-locular, dehiscing longitudinally or transversely. Staminodes sometimes present in female flowers. Carpels 1–6[to many], free, often swollen on one side; style initially terminal; stigma lobed or divided, rarely entire. Ovules 2 reducing to 1 by abortion. Pistillodes very small or absent in male flower. Fruit a drupe, straight or often horseshoe-shaped; exocarp membranous or leathery; mesocarp usually fleshy; endocarp bony or sometimes woody, rarely leathery, surface usually variously ornamented, rarely smooth, sides usually with central smooth and sunken condyle, rarely inconspicuous or lacking (e.g., Tinomiscium). Seed usually curved; seed coat thin; endosperm present or absent; embryo mostly curved (straight in Tinomiscium); radicle small, opposite to style scar; cotyledons flat and foliaceous or thick and semiterete. About 65 genera and 350 species: tropical, subtropical, and few temperate regions; 19 genera and 77 species (43 endemic) in China. Plants of the family contain many different alkaloids and are famous for their medicinal usages. Some species, such as Pericampylus glaucus and Sinomenium acutum, are used for making rattan articles in Sichuan. Lo Hsienshui. 1996. Menispermaceae. In: Law Yuwu, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 30(1): 1–81. 1a. Leaf blade venation pinnate, with main lateral veins inserted distinctly above base, never peltate; petiole scars conspicuously discoid or cuplike. 2a. Inner whorl of male sepals fused into tube, 5–7 mm; stamens 18–27, fused into conical synandrium; female infructescence usually 1-flowered; drupe with style scar close to base; lateral veins 3–5 pairs .............................. 3. Albertisia 2b. Male sepals all free, imbricate, 1.5–2.8 mm; stamens 4–18, free or with only filaments fused; female inflorescence with several flowers; drupe with style scar distant from base; lateral veins 5–10 pairs. 3a. Stamens (2–)4–11(–18), filaments fused for most of length; drupe 1.1–2 cm, not stipitate ........................ 1. Pycnarrhena 3b. Stamens 6, filaments free; drupe 2.5–3 cm, with ca. 1.5 cm stipe .............................................................. 2. Eleutharrhena 1b. Leaf blade venation palmate, with lowermost lateral veins inserted at base of blade or at petiole insertion if peltate, usually more prominent than other lateral veins; petiole scars not conspicuous. 4a. Flowers and fruits in pedunculate umbel-like cymes or discoid heads, these often in compound umbels, sometimes forming a terminal thyrse by reduction of apical leaves, rarely a slender axillary thyrse of heads (Stephania tetrandra) .................................................................................................................................... 17. Stephania 4b. Flowers and fruits in cymes, these flat-topped or in elongated thyrses, sometimes racemelike. 5a. Adaxial leaf surface very finely and closely striate; inflorescence racemose, on leafless stems, usually ferruginous tomentose; male flower with 3 pistillodes; petals 2–2.5(–3.5) mm, deeply emarginate ............ 5. Tinomiscium 5b. Adaxial leaf surface not striate; inflorescence cymose, sometimes racemelike but with flowers in small cymes or fascicles; male flower without pistillodes; petals 0.2–2 mm (rarely to 2.5 mm in Tinospora crispa). 6a. Plant male. 7a. Stamens fused into ± peltate synandrium with anthers in a marginal ring. 8a. Leaves not peltate. 9a. Inflorescence longer than leaves, up to 30(–50) cm; sepals usually 12 in 4 whorls, outermost minute, inner whorls spatulate to obovate .......................................................... 7. Aspidocarya 9b. Inflorescence shorter than leaves, 3–10 cm; sepals 6 in 2 whorls, subequal ........................ 9. Parabaena 8b. Leaves peltate. 10a. Petals connate into cup; sepals free; inflorescence a pedunculate flat-topped cyme ..... 18. Cissampelos 10b. Petals connate or free, rarely absent; sepals usually connate, rarely free; inflorescence a slender axillary racemelike or paniclelike thyrse .................................................................. 19. CycleaMENISPERMACEAE 2 7b. Stamens free or with filaments fused at base only, anthers free, not fused into ring. 11a. Petals absent. 12a. Inflorescence 5–8 cm; stamens 9–12, in a sessile cluster; wood not yellow ................. 4. Arcangelisia 12b. Inflorescence to 30 cm; stamens 3 or 6, free, filaments thick with a prominent collar below anther; wood yellow ....................................................................................... 6. Fibraurea 11b. Petals present. 13a. Stems herbaceous; stamens 12–18[–36]