Trichosanthes kirilowiiMaxim.

WFO wfo-0000407970 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Trichosanthes kirilowii, photographed by Kim, Hyun-tae
fig. a Kim, Hyun-tae, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-08-20 / obs. 48769282
Trichosanthes kirilowii, photographed by Kim, Hyun-tae
fig. b Kim, Hyun-tae, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46357445
Trichosanthes kirilowii, photographed by Kim, Hyun-tae
fig. c Kim, Hyun-tae, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 41993456
Trichosanthes kirilowii, photographed by Kim, Hyun-tae
fig. d Kim, Hyun-tae, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 48769293
Trichosanthes kirilowii, photographed by Kim, Hyun-tae
fig. e Kim, Hyun-tae, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 41993447

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 9 botanical countries

Regions where Trichosanthes kirilowii is native: China North-Central, China Southeast, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam China North-CentralChina SoutheastInner MongoliaJapanCambodiaLaosVietnam KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Trichosanthes kirilowii, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Inner Mongolia CHI
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Nansei-shoto NNS
Cambodia CBD ASIA-TROPICAL
Laos LAO
Vietnam VIE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 9 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Anguina japonica (Miq.) Kuntze
  • Anguina kirilowii (Maxim.) Kuntze
  • Eopepon aurantiacus Naudin
  • Eopepon vitifolius Naudin
  • Gymnopetalum japonicum Miq.
  • Trichosanthes japonica (Miq.) Regel
  • Trichosanthes obtusiloba C.Y.Wu ex C.Y.Cheng & Yueh
  • Trichosanthes quadricirrha Miq.
  • Trichosanthes vitifolia (Naudin) N.E.Br.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.