Trichosanthes densiflora
Content
Description
Climber to 6 m long, at first with short hairs, glabrescent, leafy stem 2-4 mm diam.;
Leaves:
Fruit ripening green, (narrowly) ellipsoid, 6-8 by c. 4.5 cm, apex c. 5 mm beaked;
Seeds brown, densely packed, compressed, (narrowly) elliptic, 10-13 by (4-)5-6 by c. 1 mm, apex shallowly notched, margin faint, edge entire.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: New Guinea present, Lorenz River present, Papua New Guinea present, West Sepik present, Western Highlands present, south-western West Papua present
Malesia: New Guinea (south-western West Papua (Lorenz River); Papua New Guinea (Western Highlands and West Sepik Provinces)).
Taxonomy
1 Trichosanthes densiflora is known only from three collections, identical on vegetative characters, although found wide apart. A fourth collection, Eyma 5123, from Wissel lake region, West Papua, has immature female flowers with a coarse woolly rufous indumentum. It seems most related to T. densiflora but may represent a separate species.
2 In Henty NGF 41616, the dried fruit has a narrowed base, apparently caused by the drying of the thick juicy-carnose pericarp, becoming thin when dry; the irregularly ornamented surface indicates the presence of the seeds underneath.