''Gynostemma'' is a genus of perennial climbing

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

s in the cucumber, gourd, and melon family, comprising at least 19 species, all native to the tropical East or Far East, inclusive of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(with 9

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

); the islands of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

;

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

; and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. The term ''Gynostemma'' is derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

γυνή meaning "woman" or "female",Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. and στέμμα meaning "

wreath A wreath () is an assortment of flowers, leaves, fruits, twigs, or various materials that is constructed to form a circle . In English-speaking countries, wreaths are used typically as household ornaments, most commonly as an Advent and Chri ...

" or "

garland A garland is a decorative braid, knot or wreath of flowers, leaves, or other material. Garlands can be worn on the head or around the neck, hung on an inanimate object, or laid in a place of cultural or religious importance. Etymology From the ...

". In (post-)classical Latin the form ''stemma'' is attested as Greek

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

.Lewis, C.T. & Short, C. (1879). ''A Latin dictionary founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin dictionary.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.Saalfeld, G.A.E.A. (1884). ''Tensaurus Italograecus. Ausführliches historisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Griechischen Lehn- und Fremdwörter im Lateinischen.'' Wien: Druck und Verlag von Carl Gerold's Sohn, Buchhändler der Kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften. In Ancient Greek and Latin, ''stemma'' is of neuter gender. German-Dutch botanist

Carl Ludwig Blume Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume (9 June 1796, Braunschweig – 3 February 1862, Leiden) was a German-Dutch botanist. He was born at Braunschweig in Germany, but studied at Leiden University and spent his professional life wor ...

described ''Gynostemma'' from two species he named:Original text by ''G. pedata'' (later changed, to ''pedatum'') and ''G. simplicifolia'' (also later changed, to ''simplicifolium''). Neither species was clearly designated by him as the type; however, the former species, ''G. pedatum'' is now considered to be a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''G. pentaphyllum'' (

Thunb. Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Sweden, Swedish Natural history, naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus ...

)

Makino History Makino was established in 1937 by Tsunezo Makino in Japan, developing Japan's first numerical control, numerically controlled (NC) milling machine in 1958 and Japan's first milling machine, machining centre in 1966. The North America ...

. The genus was published in 1825, in

Carl Ludwig von Blume Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume (9 June 1796, Braunschweig – 3 February 1862, Leiden) was a German-Dutch botanist. He was born at Braunschweig in Germany, but studied at Leiden University and spent his professional life work ...

's ''Bijdragen tot de flora van Nederlandsch Indië'' ("''Contributions to the flora of the Dutch East Indies''").

General description

All species of ''Gynostemma'' have

tendril In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as ''Cuscuta''. There are many plants that have tendr ...

s (usually branching); most are

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are usually in palmately arrayed leaflets (3–9, ovate-lanceolate in shape), arranged alternately on the stem; a few species are leaved, but without leaflets.

Inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s are either

racemose A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

paniculate A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

Fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

s can be capsular or

pea The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

-like, containing two or three

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

Selected species

* '' Gynostemma aggregatum'' C.Y.Wu & S.K.Chen * '' Gynostemma burmanicum'' King ''ex'' Chakrav. * '' Gynostemma cardiospermum'' Cogn. ''ex'' Oliv. * '' Gynostemma caulopterum'' S.Z.He * '' Gynostemma compressum'' X.X.Chen & D.R.Liang * '' Gynostemma guangxiense'' X.X.Chen & D.H.Qin * '' Gynostemma intermedium'' W.J.de Wilde & Duyfjes * '' Gynostemma laxiflorum'' C.Y.Wu & S.K.Chen * '' Gynostemma laxum'' (Wall.) Cogn. * '' Gynostemma longipes'' C.Y.Wu * '' Gynostemma microspermum'' C.Y.Wu & S.K.Chen * '' Gynostemma pallidinervee'' Z.Zhang * '' Gynostemma papuanum'' W.J.de Wilde & Duyfjes * '' Gynostemma pentagynum'' Z.P.Wang * ''

Gynostemma pentaphyllum ''Gynostemma pentaphyllum'', also called jiaogulan (, Pinyin: jiǎogǔlán, literally "twisting blue plant"), is a dioecious, herbaceous climbing vine of the family Cucurbitaceae (cucumber or gourd family) widely distributed in South and East A ...

'' (Thunb.) Makino * '' Gynostemma pubescens'' (Gagnep.) C.Y.Wu * '' Gynostemma simplicifolium'' Blume * '' Gynostemma yixingense'' (Z.P.Wang & Q.Z.Xie) C.Y.Wu & S.K.Chen * '' Gynostemma zhejiangense'' X.J.Xue : List source :

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1647854 Cucurbitaceae Cucurbitaceae genera Dioecious plants