Tinospora sinensis(Lour.) Merr., Sunyatsenia 1(4): 193. 1934; A. Pramanik in Sharma et al., Fl. India 1: 349. 1993; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 7: 8; Menispermum malabaricum Lam., Encycl. 4: 96. 1797; M.tomentosum (Colebr.) Roxb., Fl. Ind., ed. 1820 (3): 813. 1832; Tinospora cordifolia (Willds.) Miers, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 2(7): 35,38. 1851; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed. 1: 9. 1918 (Reprint 1973); T.malabarica (Lam.) Hook. f. & Thoms., Fl. Ind. 1: 183. 1855; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 1: 96. 1872; T. tomentosa (Colebr.) Hook. f. & Thoms. Fl. Ind. 1: 183. 1855.

Deciduous woody climber, dioecious, often producing long aerial roots during monsoon, old branches fat and thick. Stem slightly fleshy, green when young, striate, pubescent; bark brownish, membranous and often glabrous, lenticels raised. Leaves simple, alternate; petioles 6-15 cm long, thickened and twisted at base, puberulent; leaf blade broadly ovate to suborbicular, 7-17 cm x 5-16 cm, papery, abaxially slightly tomentulose, adaxially puberulent, base deeply to slightly cordate, margin entire, apex abruptly cuspidate or acuminate, palmately 5-7 veined at base. Flowers appearing when plant is leafless. Inflorescences (male and female) slender, raceme or panicle of racemes, 1-9(15 cm) cm long, axillary, terminal or on old wood, female solitary axillary, and male in small fascicles. Flowers unisexual, trimerous, small, greenish yellow, 6-8+ mm across, bracteate, pedicellate, pedicels 4-8 mm long, pedicels of female flowers relatively longer (6-8 mm) than of male flowers (4-5 mm). Male Flowers: Solitary or in fascicles in male inflorescence. Sepals 6, free, imbricate in 2 whorls of 3 each; outer three small, ca. 2 mm x 1 mm long, ovate-oblong or subelliptic, obtuse, concave; inner 3 much larger 4-5 mm x 2-3 mm, broadly ovate to suborbicular, lateral margins incurved. Petals 6, free, in 2 whorls of 3 each, smaller than sepals, clawed, claw ca. 1 mm long, limb ca. 2 mm x 2 mm, rhomboidal or obovate, apex and margin recurved, slightly fleshy. Stamens 6, filaments free, 3-4 mm long, thickened at apex, puberulent; anthers obliquely adnate, dehiscence longitudinal by oblique slits. Pistillodes absent. Female Flowers: Mostly solitary in female inflorescences, rarely in cymes. Sepals and petals as in male flowers. Staminodes 6, antherodes absent, opposite the petals, +/- clavate, ca. 1 mm long. Carpels 3, apocarpous, inserted on +/- globose carpophore; ovaries 3, curved-ellipsoidal, unilocular with solitary lateral ovule; style 0 or very short; stigma capitate, reflexed with short pointed lobes. Drupes 1-3 borne on short, ovoid or ellipsoid 2-3 mm long carpophore; fruiting peduncle 8-11 mm long. Drupes ovoid, ca. 1.4 cm x 1.2 cm, smooth, red with endocarp tubercled; seed 1, lateral, tubercled.

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