Mu Fang Ji

Cocculus orbiculatus (syn. C. trilobus) is a deciduous woody climbing vine of the Menispermaceae family widespread across East Asia from China and the Himalayas to Korea and Japan, where it scrambles over fences, shrubs, and forest margins. The slender twining stems are pale brown to greenish when young and become finely longitudinally striate with age. Leaves are alternate, variable in shape from broadly ovate and entire to distinctly three-lobed on the same plant, with cordate to truncate bases and softly pubescent surfaces. The plant is dioecious, producing small inconspicuous yellowish-green unisexual flowers in axillary panicles during summer, followed on female plants by small spherical drupes that ripen blue-black with a whitish bloom and contain a characteristic horseshoe-shaped seed typical of the family.