| English Name | Westland's Birthwort |
|---|---|
| Status in China | Critically Endangered (CR) |
Description:
Woody vines, usually scrambling on trees. Young branches pubescent, slender. Leaves leathery to papery, narrowly lanceolate or long-elliptic, 12-20 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, apex acute, base narrowed and auriculate; petioles c. 1 cm long, usually twisted, slightly hairy. Flowers in axillary racemes, usually only one flower developed, yellowish-or grayish-white, with purplish red reticulate nerves, with a putrid smell; pedicels 7-12 cm long, pendulous; perianth densely silky villose outside; tube of perianth geniculately curved at middle, limb nearly plate-shaped, 8-13 cm in diam., 3-lobed; throat dark purple, suborbicular, about 1.5 cm in diam.; ovary cylindrical, c. 1.5 cm long; gynostemium 3-lobed.
Distribution:
Tai Mo Shan. Yunnan.
Habitat and Ecology:
In forest of ravines at alt. 300-800 m. Flowering: Mar.-Apr.
This species is a very attractive ornamental plant with colourful and strange-shaped flowers. Its type specimen was collected in Hong Kong from Tai Mo Shan around 1880. The natural populations are very small, but in Hong Kong the localities of its occurrence are within Tai Mo Shan Country Park under protection. Ex-situ conservation measures could be explored.
References:
黃淑美，1987：廣東植物誌1：95，圖54。1987。廣東科技出版社，廣州。
黃淑美，1988：中國植物誌24：219-220。科學出版社，北京。
