What Plant Is Five-Claw Dragon? Common Types and Uses

Five-claw dragon is not the official name of any single plant, but a folk common name for several different plants. What these plants share is that their leaves are divided, or their leaflets are arranged in five, so that the shape looks like a dragon's claw spread open, which is how they got this vivid name. What people mean by five-claw dragon differs from region to region; the most common ones include Cayratia japonica in the grape family, Ficus hirta in the mulberry family, and Ipomoea cairica in the morning glory family.

Cayratia japonica is the plant most often meant when people mention five-claw dragon. It is a perennial herbaceous vine with tendrils on the stems; its palmate compound leaves are made up of five leaflets, it bears small yellow-green flowers in summer, and its fruit turns purplish black when ripe. It often climbs along field edges, fences, slopes or open woods, spreading by seed and creeping stems. It grows fast and is sometimes cleared as a weed in orchards and vegetable plots.

In the Guangdong and Guangxi region, five-claw dragon more often refers to Ficus hirta, commonly known as wuzhimaotao. It is a small shrub or small tree with rough leaves that are irregularly lobed; its fruit is a syconium, similar in appearance to a fig. People often take its roots to make soup, which carries a faint coconut aroma, making it a well-known soup ingredient in the Lingnan region, and dried goods shops often sell root sections.

Ipomoea cairica, meanwhile, is a climbing vine in the morning glory family and a close relative of the morning glory; its leaves are deeply divided into five lobes, and its flowers are trumpet-shaped, mostly pale purple or pinkish purple. It is extremely good at climbing and can cover shrubs and walls. In some southern regions it is listed as an invasive alien plant and needs to be removed promptly so that it does not affect native vegetation.

Because the same name often refers to different plants, when you hear about or buy five-claw dragon you should first confirm which one is meant, and you can tell them apart by differences in leaf shape, flowers and fruit. If you plan to use it for soup or other purposes, you should check the species even more carefully to avoid using the wrong plant.