Woody climbers, 2-3 m, deciduous. Branchlets of current year yellowish green, striate; second-year branches brown, glabrous. Bud scales ovoid, glabrous, ciliate. Petiole 2-10 mm; leaf blade oblong-ovate, 3-13 × 1.5-3.5 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 3-5 pairs, ascending, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins sparse, base rounded or broadly cuneate, apex acute or acuminate. Cyme or panicle 1-3(-20)-flowered, 4-5 cm; peduncle 2-3 cm. Pedicel 8-15 mm. Sepals 5, triangular-ovate, ca. 0.5 mm. Petals 5, light green or greenish purple to brownish chocolate colored, oblong or broadly obovate, 4-5 mm, 7-9-veined. Stamens 5, 3-5 mm; filaments flattened; anthers ovoid, introrse. Disk swollen, cylindric, margin undulate. Ovary glabrous; style ca. 4 mm. Schizocarp obovoid or suborbicular, ca. 6 × 7 mm, glabrous; endocarp with midrib narrowly winged, with 2 adjacent reticulate lines, both surfaces concave. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Jun-Aug.
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An evergreen woody creeper. It grows 2-3 m high. The roots are fleshy and pale yellow. The young branches are yellowish-green. The leaves are sword shaped. They are 5-12 cm long by 2 cm wide. They taper to the tip and are rounded at the base. They can be white along the edge. The flowers are greenish-purple. They can occur singly or in groups or 3-6. The fruit are round or kidney shaped and 6-7 mm across. They are blue.
It is a warm temperate plant. It is native to central and western China between 1,000-1,400 m altitude. In Sichuan and Yunnan.
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