''Stephania japonica'', known as snake vine, is a

vine A vine 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 themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

often seen in sheltered areas near the sea.

Description

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

vine without prickles. Greenish small flowers form on compound

umbel UMBEL (Upper Mapping and Binding Exchange Layer) is a logically organized knowledge graph of 34,000 concepts and entity types that can be used in information science for relating information from disparate sources to one another. It was retired ...

s, growing from the leaf

axil A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, fl ...

s in the warmer months.

Inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s are 4 to 8 cm long. The fruit is an oval shaped, orange or red

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...

, 2 to 5 mm long. A feature of this plant is the

peltate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

leaves, (the stem is attached to the leaf, away from the leaf edge).

Distribution

A widespread vine seen as far south as

Eden, New South Wales Eden is a coastal town in the South Coast (New South Wales), South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is south of the States and territories of Australia, state capital Sydney and is the most southerly town in New South Wales, ...

, north through

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. Also seen in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, and many other areas of south-east Asia and the Pacific region. The original specimen was collected in Japan, hence the specific epithet “japonica”. The variety in New South Wales is known as ''bicolor'', as the under-side of the leaf is somewhat paler than above.

Chemistry

Protostephanine is an alkaloid collected from ''Stephania japonica''.

Antihypertensive agent Antihypertensives are a class of medication, drugs that are used to treat hypertension (high blood pressure). Antihypertensive therapy seeks to prevent the complications of high blood pressure, such as stroke, heart failure, kidney failure and myo ...

Consumption

The leaves of this plant are commonly used to produce edible green grass jelly in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

.http://digilib.unila.ac.id/5662/9/Bab%202%20.pdf Detection of Coliform Bacteria in Traditional Snacks Black Cincau at Traditional Market and Supermarket in Bandar Lampung City

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7608205 japonica Flora of tropical Asia Flora of Japan Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Edible plants Plants described in 1784 Grass jelly plants