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Gynostemma pentaphyllum

Botanic Family

Cucurbitaceae

Author

(Thunberg) Makino

Common Names

• Wu zhu jiao gu lan (Pinyin)

Geographical Habitats

• Bangladesh
• Borneo
• Anhui
• Fujian
• Guangdong
• Guangxi
• Guizhou
• Hainan
• S. Henan
• Hubei
• Hunan
• Jiangsu
• Jiangxi
• Shandong
• Sichuan
• Taiwan
• SE. Yunnan
• Zhejiang - China
• Assam - India
• Java
• Lesser Sunda Islands
• Maluku
• Sulawesi
• Sumatra - Indonesia
• Hokkaido
• Honshu
• Kyushu
• Shikoku - Japan
• S. Korea
• Laos
• Perak - Malaysia
• Myanmar
• Nepal
• New Guinea - Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• Vietnam

Natural Habitats

• Forest margins
• lowland thickets
• swamp
• rocky areas
• montane areas

Flowering Times

• Mar-Nov ( China)
• May-Jun (Thailand)
• Aug (Papua New Guinea)
• Aug-Sep (Japan)

Fruiting Times

• Apr-Dec (China)

Dioecious, herbaceous slender glabrous annual simple or bifid-tendril liana to 7m, with densely spiny angular stems pubescent on nodes, 3 to 7-foliolate palmate leaves, mucronate dentate leaflets with a short spine in each notch, terminal leaflet to 80mm x 30mm. Toothed axillary & terminal bracteate panicles or racemes to 175mm long of male 3mm pale greenish-white to greenish-yellow puberulous flowers, calyx lobes 0.7mm long, 5 petals 2mm long x 1mm, female flowers in shorter panicles, 1mm diameter. Glabrous drupe or capsule yellow-green maturing black to 10mm diameter

Further References

• FOC
• NYBG
• JDH
• The Plant List 2
• J.S. Gamble
• Fedde
• Botanicus
• F Indochine
• GBS
• FOJ
• JFM
• JAA