Dendrophthoe pentandra
Content
Description
Glabrous except for the young shoots, inflorescences and flowers with a somewhat silky off-white to grey or less often brown tomentum, less dense on the distal part of the corolla.
Leaves scattered or subopposite; lamina variable, mostly narrowly to broadly elliptic, mostly 6-13 cm long, (1.5—)3 — 8 cm wide, attenuate to cuneate at the base to a petiole 5-20 mm long, rounded to rarely acuminate and acute at the apex, dull on both sides but darker above; venation pinnate with the midrib and the somewhat curvinerved main laterals usually visible on both sides.
Inflorescencess at the nodes, a 6-12-flowered raceme; axis 10-20(-35) mm long; pedicels 1-4 mm long.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; Jawa (Jawa present); Lesser Sunda Is. (Bali present); Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present, Singapore present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), Flores present, From eastern India eastwards throughout Indochina present, Luzon present, Palawan present, Sumba present
From eastern India eastwards throughout Indochina; Malesia: Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo, Java, rare in Philippines (Palawan, Luzon) and western Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali, Sumba, Flores).
Notes
In absence of flowers Dendrophthoe pentandra may be difficult to distinguish from D. curvata. Typical D. pentandra differs from D. curvata in being more robust, with stouter stems and thicker darker glabrous leaves; the inflorescence is shorter and fewer- flowered; the corolla always bears a somewhat silky usually off-white indumentum, is inflated in the lower part, has a short regular tube, with the lobes fully reflexed almost closing the neck; the corolla appears to be normally of only one colour, whereas that of D. curvata is often differently coloured above and below.
Many intermediate specimens appear to be hybrids, especially with Dendrophthoe curvata in Borneo and D. kerrii in Indochina.