Strophanthus divaricatus (Lour.) Hook. & Arnott

Various parts of the plant are used as heart stimulant and to treat injury and snake bites.

Lianas or sarmentose shrubs, stolon bearing when pruned, to 4.5 m tall, glabrous except for corolla, latex clear or yellowish. Trunk to 4 cm in diam.; branches dark gray, densely lenticellate, branchlets reddish brown. Petiole 5-10 mm; leaf blade elliptic or slightly obovate, 3-10 X 1.5-5 cm; lateral veins 4-9 pairs. Cymes 3-15-flowered; peduncle to 1.5 cm; bracts linear or narrowly ovate, deciduous. Pedicel to 1 cm. Sepals narrowly triangular, 4-11 mm. Corolla yellow, tube 0.9-1.6 cm, puberulent on both sides or glabrous inside; lobes with a red basal spot inside, ovate, to 10 cm, abruptly narrowed into pendulous tails to 1 mm wide; corona lobes 10, greenish yellow, triangular or awl-shaped, 0.9-3 mm. Anthers included, connective tail to 0.6 mm. Ovary glabrous. Follicles ellipsoid-oblong, 9-15 X 2-3.5 cm, hard, woody, divergent at 180-250°. Seeds fusiform, 1.3-2 cm, beak 1.2-3.4 cm, coma 3.5-5.5 cm. Fl. Mar-Jul. 2n = 18.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Yunnan [Laos, Vietnam]

Forests, thickets; 100-1000 m.

Pergularia divaricata Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 1: 169. 1790; Emericia divaricata (Loureiro) Roemer & Schultes; Nerium chinense Hunter ex Roxburgh; Periploca divaricata (Loureiro) Sprengel; Strophanthus chinensis (Hunter ex Roxburgh) G. Don; S. dichotomus de Candolle var. chinensis Ker Gawler; S. divergens Graham; Vallaris divaricata (Loureiro) G. Don.

Fruit resembles a pair of goat's horns

Strophanthus divaricatus is a liana or sarmentose shrub that can grow up to 4.5 metres (15 ft) tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 4 centimetres (1.6 in). Divaricatus is from the Latin meaning "spreading at a wide angle". The plant has been used medicinally: as a heart stimulant and in the treatment of snakebites. It is native to southern China and northern Vietnam.