Aristolochia zollingeriana
Content
Description
Undershrub or a twiner up to 5 m high.
Leaves charta-ceous, variable in shape and size even on one specimen, ovate or ovate-oblong, sometimes deltoid, reni-form, or suborbicular, 4-15 by 2.5-12 cm;
Inflorescences in the axils of foliage leaves, the very short rachis (up to c. 16 mm long) with condensed inter-nodes and bracts, glabrous;
Stamens 6;
Capsules short-cylindric, 2-3 by 1.5-2 cm, slightly 6-ridged, glabrous.
Seeds triangular, winged, 4-5 by 4 mm (incl. the c. 0.6 mm wide wing), densely verrucose on both surfaces, upper surfaces sometimes covered with a membranous funicle appendage.
Distribution
Asia-Temperate: Taiwan (Taiwan present), Asia-Tropical: Philippines (Philippines present), Besuki Res present, Bohol present, Cebu present, E. Java present, Luzon present, Mindoro present, NE. Sumatra present, Pematang Siantar present, Puger present, S. Ryukyu Is present, Salupiri I present
S. Ryukyu Is., Taiwan; in Malesia: Philippines (Luzon, Mindoro, Cebu, Bohol, Salupiri I.), NE. Sumatra (Pematang Siantar) and SE. Java (Besuki Res.: Puger).
Notes
The leaves of this species are very variable in shape, size, texture, etc. The leaf base can be shallowly cordate (with two divergent lobes), or sagittate (with a deep sinus and two ± parallel lobes). The leaves on the specimens collected from Sumatra and Java are ovate-oblong and sagittate at the base, but those from the southern Ryukyus and Taiwan are often deltoid, ovate, or suborbiculate, and shallowly cordate at the base. However, there are intermediate forms among the specimens from the Philippines; sometimes various leaf forms are even found in one specimen.
The polymorphism of the leaves in the present species can be compared with that found in the well known Japanese A. kaempferi WILLD.
Some of the leaf forms are similar to those of A. foveolata, in shape and indumentum underneath, but that species is quite different in flowers and seed.
A. zollingeriana closely resembles A. tagala, but can easily be distinguished: in the first the undersurface of the leaves is minutely hairy and with distinct areolation, in the latter it is sparsely short-hairy, rarely glabrous and with obscure areolation. In flower, fruit and seed the two are different.
The leaves of A. zollingeriana resemble those of the Japanese A. kaempferi WILLD.; the undersurface of the leaves in the first is rather densely minute-hairy, in the latter there are loosely appressed hairs. Fertile specimens of A. kaempferi differ by absence of a stipe-like part of the perianth base, perianth curved in the middle, more or less V-shaped, limb suborbicular in outline, obscurely 2-lobed, and seed concave-convex, not winged.
The polymorphism of the leaves in the present species can be compared with that found in the well known Japanese A. kaempferi WILLD.
Some of the leaf forms are similar to those of A. foveolata, in shape and indumentum underneath, but that species is quite different in flowers and seed.
A. zollingeriana closely resembles A. tagala, but can easily be distinguished: in the first the undersurface of the leaves is minutely hairy and with distinct areolation, in the latter it is sparsely short-hairy, rarely glabrous and with obscure areolation. In flower, fruit and seed the two are different.
The leaves of A. zollingeriana resemble those of the Japanese A. kaempferi WILLD.; the undersurface of the leaves in the first is rather densely minute-hairy, in the latter there are loosely appressed hairs. Fertile specimens of A. kaempferi differ by absence of a stipe-like part of the perianth base, perianth curved in the middle, more or less V-shaped, limb suborbicular in outline, obscurely 2-lobed, and seed concave-convex, not winged.
Citation
DUCHARTRE 1864 – In: DC., Prod. 15: 482
SASAKI 1980: p. 45. – In: Hsu (ed.), The Rare & Threatened Plants of Taiwan: col. phot.
DING HOU 1983: p. 232. – In: Blumea: f. 2c, 3a & b.
WALKER 1976: Fl. Okin. S. Ryukyu Is.: 424
Koord. 1926: p. 591. – In: Exk. Fl. Java: f. 873
SCHMIDT 1935 – In: E. & P., Nat. Pfl. Fam., ed. 2, 16b: 241
BACK. 1919: p. 162. – In: Trop. Natuur: f. 15, 165
BACK. & BAKH.F. 1963 – In: Fl. Java: 162
Liu & LAI 1979 – In: Fl. Taiwan: 572