Sinomenium acutum (Thunb.) Rehder & E.H.Wilson

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Sinomenium acutum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/sinomenium/sinomenium-acutum/). Accessed 2025-11-16.

Family

Menispermaceae

Genus

Sinomenium

Synonyms

Menispermum acutum Thunb.
Sinomenium diversifolium (Spreng.) Diels
Cocculus diversifolius Miq.
Cocculus heterophyllus Hemsl. & E.H.Wilson

Infraspecifics

var. cinereum

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Sinomenium acutum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/sinomenium/sinomenium-acutum/). Accessed 2025-11-16.

Young shoots emerging reddish-purple on Sinomenium acutum at Ghent Botanic Garden (acc number W 20011049), Ghent, Belgium. 20 April 2016. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

A deciduous climber, up to 20 ft high, with twining stems. Leaves very variable in shape, perhaps normally ovate-cordate and entire, but sometimes almost kidney-shaped, sometimes lobed like Catalpa ovata, sometimes deeply three- or five-lobed (with lanceolate lobes), sometimes shallowly so; often with a lobe on one side only; the base often truncate; 2 to 6 in. long, 11⁄4 to 41⁄2 in. wide; deep bright green, glabrous, with three or five conspicuous veins radiating from the base; stalk slender, 2 to 6 in. long. Flowers small, yellow, unisexual, about 1⁄6 in. wide; sepals six, in two series of three each, downy beneath; petals very small; the flowers are borne in slenderly pyramidal panicles 6 to 12 in. long, the main and secondary flower-stalks downy. Fruit about the size of a small pea, globose, black, covered with blue bloom.

Native of E. Asia. Although described by Thunberg in 1784 from a Japanese plant, it does not appear to have been introduced to cultivation until Wilson sent seeds from China to Veitch’s Coombe Wood nursery in 1901. It is perfectly hardy, and a vigorous grower.

Yellow leaves and blackish-blue infrutescences of Sinomenium acutum. Meise Botanic Garden (acc number 20051174–13 from Honshu, Japan), Belgium. 5 November 2010. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Fruits of Sinomenium acutum are about the size of a small pea, globose, black and covered with a blue bloom. Meise Botanic Garden (acc number 20051174–13), Belgium. 5 November 2010. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Sinomenium acutum is a perfectly hardy and vigourous deciduous climber, native to east Asia. Here planted in Strasbourg Botanic Garden, France. 22 December 2007. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Close up on the yellow leaves of Sinomenium acutum. They are very variable in shape, from entire -like in this case- to deeply lobed. Meise Botanic Garden (acc number 20051174–13 from Honshu, Japan), Belgium. 5 November 2010. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

var. cinereum (Diels) Rehder & E.H.Wilson

Synonyms
Cocculus diversifolius var. cinereus Diels

Leaves downy above, densely so beneath. Introduced by Wilson in 1907 from W. Hupeh, where, as in W. Szechwan, it is commoner than the glabrous type. Some of the plants raised from Wilson’s 1901 seed may have belonged to this variety, which seems to be the commoner in gardens also.

Sinomenium acutum var. cinereum was introduced in 1907 by Ernest Wilson from western Hubei, China. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Acc number 19081005, from Wilson 617). 27 September 2016. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Leaves of Sinomenium acutum var. cinereum are downy above and densely downy beneath. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Acc number , from Wilson 617). 27 September 2016. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Close up on the densely downy underside of a leaf of Sinomenium acutum var. cinereum. Their shape is extremely variable, as these pictures show. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Acc number , from Wilson 617). 27 September 2016. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Sinomenium acutum var. cinereum is commoner in the wild than the glabrous type Sinomenium acutum. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Acc number , from Wilson 617). 27 September 2016. Image Guillaume Mamdy.