Adenia macrophylla

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Adenia macrophylla

Description

Liana to 25 m, at base up to 15 cm ø. Leaves (sub)coriaceous, entire or up to ½ cm lobed in upper half, suborbicular to oblong-lanceolate or (ob)ovate, top (sub)obtuse to acute, up to 1½ cm acuminate, base acute-acuminate, or rounded or subcordate, (4-)5-21 by (1½-)2½-12 cm, 3-5 subplinerved or ± pinninerved; Inflorescences peduncled for up to 14 cm, sometimes subsessile in short-shoots up to 25 cm, lax or condensed, in ♂ up to 150-flowered, in ♀ 2-10-flowered, tendrils 0-3, up to 4 cm long. Fruit 1-2(-3?), globose to broadly ovoid, base rounded, top rounded to subacute, or fruit ± fusiform, excluding the (7-)10-30 mm long gynophore 2-6(-6½) by 1½-5 cm; Seeds 15-40, ± orbicular, 5-10 by 5-10 by 2½-4 mm, ± muricate and pitted;

Distribution

Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), W. & Central Java present
Malesia: Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, W. & Central Java, Borneo. .

Uses

Fruits several times recorded as poisonous. According to various authors the roots and leaves are medicinal. According to HEYNE () the bark is used for spinning threads for fishing tackle in Sumatra's West Coast. JACOBS (n. 5003) mentioned: 'The wood smells a bit of HCN; vessels contain potable water'.

Notes

The fruits are sometimes 4-carpellate. Often larva feeding on the pollen are found. Deformed galled flowers occur regularly. Flowers are once reported as odorless; the urceolate flowers enclosing the anthers, however, suggest entomogamy.

Citation

DE WILDE 1971: Thesis: 226: f. 34