Neoalsomitra hederifolia

Primary tabs

Neoalsomitra hederifolia

Content

Description

Low or medium climber, perennial, densely or sparsely glandular-hairy all over (except flowers), hairs 0.5-2 mm long, stem at base to 1 cm thick; Leaves: Fruit brittle, glabrescent, 2.5-3 cm long, at apex (0.8-)1 cm wide, base narrowly rounded, perianth scar (rim) at c. 2.5 mm distant from the flat apex; Seeds 15-20, obovate with narrowed base, c. 6 by 4.5 mm, dark brown, margin (edge) coarsely 5-toothed, faces coarsely few-tubercled, wing 7 by 2.5 mm.

Distribution

Asia-Tropical: Jawa (Jawa present); Lesser Sunda Is. present, Kangean Archipelago, east of Madura present, Pulau Semau present, Timor present, near Timor present
Known from few collections: Java (Kangean Archipelago, east of Madura), Lesser Sunda Islands (Pulau Semau (near Timor) and Timor).

Taxonomy

2 The infructescences and fruits of Sicyos hederifolia are known only from an anonymous single collection in P, a leafless specimen annotated Zanonia indica L., Timor, apparently collected in the same period as the type of S. hederifolius. Its assignment to N. hederifolia is not fully certain, but the old, dead twigs with leaf scars and tendrils agree, and the fruits and seed (one single seed only is preserved, ) differ from the fruits and seeds of the other Neoalsomitras from Timor: N. sarcophylla differs in seed and N. schefferiana subsp. podagrica differs in fruiting pedicel c. 5 mm long against c. 10 mm long in N. hederifolia. 3 Jacobs (1954) cites a note by Van Steenis on living flowering material cultivated in Bogor, about 1939, not preserved or apparently lost, obviously not belonging to N. hederifolia. See also the note under N. sarcophylla. 1 The three anonymous sheets with male flowers in P, syntypes of Sicyos hederifolia, were collected around 1801-1821, either by Sautier, Riedlé, Quichenot, or by Gaudichaud; see Van Steenis-Kruseman (Fl. Males., Ser. 1, Spermat (1950)), and the introduction to Decaisne’s enumeration (1834).

Citation

Span. 1841: Linnaea: 206
Cogn. 1881 – In: A.DC. & C.DC., Monogr. Phan. 3: 935
M.Jacobs 1954 – In: Blumea: 617
M.Roem. 1916 – In: Engl., Pflanzenr. 66: 13
M.Roem. 1846 – In: Fam. Nat. Syn. Monogr.: 104
C.van Woerden 1940: p. 6. – In: Trop. Natuur: f. 7, photo of thickened stem base
Miq. 1856 – In: Fl. Ned. Ind.: 683
Miq. 1856: p. 682. – In: Fl. Ned. Ind.: ‘hederaefolius’.
Steenis 1956: p. 192. – In: Webbia: f. 1a.