The first time I saw the short-tailed clematis was in the fourth district of The Dragon Jinyuan in Huilongguan, Beijing, near my home, in September 2016. It was creeping inside the hedge, and it was blooming, white and small. At that time, it was only known that it was a plant of the clematis genus, but it was much inferior to the clematis of this genus, and looked more like a weed.
When I went home and checked the Chinese plant image library, I learned that it was a short-tailed clematis. As can be seen from the name, it is characterized by leaves with tails, which according to the Flora of China is "apex tapering or long tapering". But the tail will not be very long, because there are sources that there is also a long-tailed clematis acuminata de Candolle var. longicaudata W. T. Wang 。 Since it is impossible to find the picture data of the "long tail tip", the difference between the two is not known.
In November, when I went to the fourth district of Longjinyuan, I found a short-tailed clematis on a barrier. It had already borne fruit, and the fluff of the fruit covered the entire fence, like it was covered with thick snow. Its fruit is a polygonal fruit, and each individual thin fruit has a long, curved whisker at the top, covered with white fluff like a bird feather. Many fruits come together like snow balls.
But when I went to see it again the next year, the two short-tailed clematis were gone, and the people at the property had already cleaned them up. What is a rare plant in my eyes is a weed in their eyes.
It wasn't until mid-August 2019 that I saw this plant again in the 4th district of Lung Kam Yuen. There were only buds at the time.
Two days later, I encountered another piece in the second district of LongyueYuan, which had already blossomed.
Clematis brachycephalus is a native plant in China, and according to the Flora of China, it is distributed in Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Henan, Hunan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and other provinces and regions and northeast China. It is also found in Korea, Mongolia, the Russian Far East and Japan.
Whether short-tailed clematis is included in Chinese Materia Medica books is unknown. Mainly because the ancients paid attention to the medicinal properties of plants, and did not pay much attention to the characteristics of the original plants.
The earliest collection of short-tailed clematis in Chinese botanical works may be the "Economic Botanical Records of North China" published in 1953. However, the specimen collection of this plant is much earlier, and the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Jiangsu Province has preserved Y. Yabe collected specimens from Tielin Temple in Wutaishan in 1906. The Herbarium of Harvard University in the United States preserves a specimen collected by E.H. Wilson in 1907 at China Kuling, 4000feet (China Kuling, 4000 feet).
The flora of Beijing, published in 1962, contains Clematis brevicaudata DC., saying that it is "raw mountain shrubland or forest edge or flat roadside" and that "the whole grass is poisonous and inedible". The 1965 edition of Guizhou Folk Medicine contains clematis brevicaudata DC., which mentions "aliases Yamamutong (called everywhere), red nail rake vine (Rongjiang), Xiaomutong (Dushan)," and "Sexual taste: cool sex, bitter taste." Function: Dehumidify heat, facilitate urination. "The Northeast Plant Search Table, published in 1959, contains this plant (C. Brevicaudata DC.), the name of the Chinese used is "Forest Metro Line Lotus", saying that it "grows in the wetlands of the forest". When the second volume of the first volume of the Flora of Qinling, published in 1974, contained clematis Clematis brevicaudata DC., it was mentioned that its aliases were "Shi Tong, LianJia Quan (Slightly Yang)".
For the above names, my understanding is:
"Clematis short-tailed" is named because it is a clematis plant, and the leaves are "apex tapering or long tapering" into a tail shape. The genus represents "Clematis" because its stem is like clematis and its flowers are like lotuses, hence the name.
"Forest metro line lotus", because it was born in the forest wetland, hence the name.
"Shanmutong", because the "Guizhou Folk Medicine" uses the short-tailed clematis as the original plant of the Chinese medicine Shanmutong, so it is named. However, the "Chinese Materia Medica" verifies that the original plant of the Chinese medicine Shanmutong is Shanmutong Clematis finetiana Levl. et Vaniot。 Mutong is a traditional Chinese medicine, and the original plants are Mutong, Three-leaf Mutong, and Baimutong. The origin of the name of Mutong: because the catheter in the stem is thick, many fine holes can be seen in the section, and the two ends are connected, so it is named. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, plants similar to Chinese medicine Mutong are often called "a certain Mutong".
"Xiaomutong", because the "Guizhou Folk Medicine" uses the short-tailed iron lotus as the original plant of the Chinese medicine Xiaomutong, so it is named. However, the "Chinese Materia Medica" examines that the original plant of the Chinese medicine Xiaomutong is Clematis lasiandra Maxim.
"Shi Tong" is the Chinese medicinal name of Clematis short-tailed lotus. The name is derived from the same Chinese medicine Mountain Mutong, and was born in the stone gap in the mountain, hence the name.
"Red nail rake vine", when the Chinese Materia Medica includes this plant, "red nail rake vine" is used as the correct name of Chinese medicine. The origin of its name is speculated to be related to its vine, stem like iron wire, and the stem is purple-red, and it may be felt that its stem resembles a nail rake tooth.
"Continuous frame turning" is speculated to be related to its climbing into a frame and the side branches turning out horizontally and stiffly. Whether this is the case, it is still necessary to ask the Shaanxi Luoyang people for advice.
Regarding the function of clematis short-tailed, the Flora of China adopts the words of the "National Compilation of Chinese Herbal Medicine": "The vine stem is medicated, clearing heat and diuresis, milking, digestion, laxative; mainly for the treatment of urinary tract infections, urinary frequency, urethral pain, upset urine redness, mouth and tongue sores, abdominal distension, constipation, and milk failure (National Compilation of Chinese Herbal Medicines). ”
The Latin scientific name for Clematis brevicaudata DC., is a plant of the clematis genus ranunculaceae.