Japan Flora: Small scandent shrub; leaves membranous, narrowly obovate to obovate-orbicular, rarely elliptic, 4-7 cm. long, 3-5 cm. wide, glabrous or sometimes papillose on nerves beneath, the petioles 2-2.5 cm. long, pale green; flowers creamy white, pendulous on slender peduncles; petals oblong, about 10 mm. long, ascending; fruit globose, red; seeds smooth.-May- June. Mountains

Hokkaido, Honshu (n. and centr. distr.). -Korea, China, Amur, and Sakhalin.

 

Korea Flora: Deciduous vine. Winter buds elongated oval-shaped, pointed at the tip, with 4-6 bud scales, 3-6mm in length. Leaf scars circular or semicircular. Leaves alternate, broadly elliptical, elongated elliptical or ovate, gradually becoming pointed, with a cuneate base. Leaf size 7-10cm × 3-5cm, hairless except on the veins of the underside, with small tooth-like serrations on the edges. Petiole 1.5-2(3)cm long. Flowers dioecious, 15mm in diameter, slightly reddish yellow-white in color.  6-9 petals, 5-10mm long, ovate-oblong. flowers 5 stamens and numerous pistils. sepals 3-5cm long. Fruits and seeds in a tail-like form, red, spherical or obovoid-spherical, 6-12mm long, containing 1-2 seeds. 

Sporophyte chromosome number 28.

Flowering late April to late June.

Fruiting late August to mid-October.

Distribution northeastern and northern China, Hokkaido to central Honshu of Japan; Baekdudaegan in Hamgyongbukdo to Gyeongsang bukdo and Jeollanamdo of Korea.

Russia Flora: Woody deciduous climbing liana up to 8 m tall, 2 cm in diameter. Bark dark brown, wrinkled. Leaves alternate, up to 10 cm long, 5 cm wide, elliptical or oval-obovate, with cuneate base, pointed at apex, with indistinct teeth, somewhat thick; petioles up to 3 cm long, often reddish. Plants usually monoecious. Inflorescence up to 4 cm long. Flowers arranged in clusters of 3-5 in the leaf axils, unisexual, about 2 cm in diameter, with white waxy simple perianth of 6-12 tepals up to 1 cm long; stamens numerous, fused into a column. On the elongating receptacle, in the form of a raceme, are attached fleshy, red, spherical or obovate two-seeded fruits. Seeds up to 3 mm in diameter, kidney-shaped, warty. 2n=28 (Sokolovskaya, 1960). 

Northern Sakhalin, Upper Zeya, Lower Zeya, Bureya, Amgun, Ussuri, Southern Sakhalin, Southern Kuril.  In mixed and Korean pine-broadleaved forests, along banks of rivers and streams, at forest edges, on drained soils. Flowers VI-VII, fruits IX. Valuable medicinal and ornamental plant.  General distribution: Japan-China. Described from the People's Republic of China.