''Stemona'' is a genus of vines and subshrubs in the family
Stemonaceae
The Stemonaceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants placed in the order Pandanales. The family consists of four genera with ca 37 known species distributed in areas with seasonal climate across Southeast Asia and tropical Australia. ...
, described as a genus in 1790.
''Stemona'' is native to
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 ...
, the
Indian Subcontinent,
Southeast Asia,
Papuasia, and northern
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]
/ref>
Species
Fossil record
2 fossil seeds of †''Stemona germanica'' from the early Miocene, have been found in the Kristina Mine at Hrádek nad Nisou
Hrádek nad Nisou (; german: Grottau, pl, Gródek nad Nysą) is a town in Liberec District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,700 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument ...
in North Bohemia
North Bohemia ( cs, Severní Čechy, german: Nordböhmen) is a region in the north of the Czech Republic.
Location
North Bohemia roughly covers the present-day NUTS regional unit of ''CZ04 Severozápad'' and the western part of ''CZ05 Severovýc ...
, the Czech Republic. Fossil seeds of ''Stemona germanica'' have also been recorded from the nearby Hartau in Germany. ''Stemona'' fossil seeds are recorded from many European sites ranging in ages from the Maastrichtian to the Late Miocene
The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...
.[A review of the early Miocene Mastixioid flora of the Kristina Mine at Hrádek nad Nisou in North Bohemia, The Czech Republic, January 2012 by F. Holý, Z. Kvaček and Vasilis Teodoridis - ACTA MUSEI NATIONALIS PRAGAE Series B – Historia Naturalis • vol. 68 • 2012 • no. 3–4 • pp. 53–118]
Cultivation and uses
''Stemona tuberosa'' (Chinese: 百部; pinyin: bǎi bù), is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine.
References
External links
*
Germplasm Resources Information Network: ''Stemona''
Medicinal plants
Pandanales genera
Stemonaceae
{{Pandanales-stub