Tripterospermum volubile - Green Gentian Vine

Green Gentian Vine is a climber with stems spirally twisted, twining, slender, round, striped. Flowers are white or greenish, narrowly bell-shaped, 2.5-3 cm; petals ovate-triangular, about 4 mm, tip pointed; false-petals are semiround, about 2 mm, margin rounded-toothed. Filaments are linear, 1.2-1.5 cm; anthers ellipsoid, about 1 mm. Style is linear, 6-9 mm. Sepal-cup is bell-shaped; tube 6-9 mm, broadly winged; sepals lanceshaped, 0.7-1.3 cm, tip tapering. Flowers are borne one or two together, carried on flower-stalks 5-8 mm long. Bracts are sometimes present, lanceshaped, 1-2 cm. Leaf-stalks are 0.5-1.5 cm, slender; leaf blade ovate-lanceshaped, 6-9 x 2-2.5 cm, base rounded to almost heart-shaped, margin nearly entire to sometimes rounded-toothed, tip tapering and with a tail, veins 3-5. Berries are red to dark purple, narrowly ellipsoid, 2-4 cm; seeds dark purple, elliptic, triquetrous, compressed, about 2 mm, distinctly winged. Green Gentian Vine is found in the Himalayas to Tibet and N. Myanmar, in forests at altitudes of 2300-3100 m. Flowering: August-September.