Tylophora ovata (Lindley) Hook. ex Steudel

The roots are used for the treatment of leukemia, asthma, snake bites, and traumatic injury.

Lianas to 5 m, rusty hispid, villous, or pubescent except for adaxial leaf surface and sometimes follicles. Petiole 0.5-3 cm; leaf blade ovate, 2.5-12.5(-16) × 1.2-9 cm, base cordate to subcordate, apex acute or short acuminate and mucronate; lateral veins 4-6 pairs. Inflorescences 4-13 cm; peduncle 0.5-2 cm; rachis simple, zigzag, occasionally forked; cymules sessile, racemelike, dense, many flowered. Pedicel threadlike, 5-10 mm. Sepals subulate-acuminate to ovate, ciliate; glands 5 or absent. Corolla yellowish or yellow-green, rotate, ca. 5 mm in diam., glabrous or puberulent; tube ca. 1 mm; lobes oblong-ovate or ovate, ca. 1.5-2.5 × 1-1.2 mm, obtuse. Corona lobes ovoid, pouched, apex obtuse, covering base of anthers. Anther appendages rounded; pollinia globose to ovoid, horizontal. Stigma head a 5-angled plate, depressed. Follicles lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate in outline, 4-7 cm × 3-12 mm, puberulent or glabrous, apex sometimes recurved. Seeds oval, 5-7 × 2-4 mm; coma 2-3.5 cm. Fl. Apr-Aug, fr. Aug-Dec.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam]

Forests, mixed woods, thickets; 200-1000 m.

Diplolepis ovata Lindley, Trans. Hort. Soc. London 6: 286. 1826; Gymnema hirsuta Wallich; Tylophora atrofolliculata F. P. Metcalf; T. hirsuta (Wallich) Wight; T. hispida Decaisne; T. hispida var. brownii Hayata; T. lanyuensis Liu & Lu; T. mollissima Wallich ex Wight; T. panzhutenga Z. Y. Zhu.