Rauvolfia verticillata (Lour.) Baill.

Used in China to treat snake poisoning, malaria, and typhus. The roots are used to treat hypertension and as a sedative.

Shrubs to 3 m tall, erect, glabrous. Branchlets pale gray, lenticellate. Lower leaves opposite, terminal leaves in whorls of 3 or 4; petiole 0.5-1.5 cm; leaf blade narrowly to broadly ovate or oblong, 3.5-25 X 5-13 cm, nearly papery to membranous; lateral veins 6 or 7 pairs. Cymes rather lax, 3-9 together; peduncle 2-15 cm. Pedicel 3-6 mm. Corolla white, tube cylindric, 1-1.8 cm, inflated and villous from middle to throat; lobes broadly elliptic or ovate, 1-4.5 mm. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube. Ovaries distinct. Drupes ellipsoid or ovoid, distinct, ca. 10 X 5 mm. Seed 1. Fl. Feb-Oct, fr. Apr-Dec. 2n = 22*.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam]

Lowland, montane rain forests, monsoon forests, brush fields, river banks, rice fields, seashores; 0-1700 m.

Dissolena verticillata Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 1: 137. 1790; Cerbera chinensis Sprengel; Ophioxylon chinense Hance; Rauvolfia altodiscifera Miau, R. brevistyla Tsiang; R. cambodiana Pierre ex Pitard; R. chinensis (Sprengel) Hemsley; R. latifrons Tsiang; R. perakensis King & Gamble; R. superaxillaris P. T. Li & S. Z. Huang; R. taiwanensis Tsiang; R. verticillata var. hainanensis Tsiang; R. verti-cillata var. oblanceolata Tsiang; R. verticillata var. officinalis Tsiang; R. yunnanensis Tsiang.