Trichosanthes papuana
Content
Description
Large climber, glabrous, leafy stem 2-5 mm diam., sometimes lenticellate;
Leaves:
Fruit ripening bright red, possibly somewhat striped at apex, broadly ovoid-ellipsoid, 9-16(-20) by 7-13(-17) cm;
Seeds blackish, compressed, ovate or narrowly elliptic, 20-27 by 11-15 by 4-6 mm, base subtruncate, apex narrowly rounded, margin broad but faint, edge entire.
Distribution
Aru Islands present, Asia-Tropical: Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present, Jayapura Province: Waisiniwai present, Lae present, Morobe Province present, Papua New Guinea present, Pulau Wokam present, West Papua present, Western Province present
Malesia: Moluccas (Aru Islands, Pulau Wokam); New Guinea (West Papua (Jayapura Province: Waisiniwai), and Papua New Guinea (Morobe Province: Lae and Western Province)).
Taxonomy
1 The yellow colour of the pulp as mentioned in Takeuchi & Ama 17069 is at variance with the fruit in the herbarium collection and also with the pulp colour in related species, e.g., T. elmeri. Possibly the yellow pulpy pericarp is meant, whereas the blackish seeds are embedded in green blackish watery pulp.
2 Trichosanthes papuana is similar to the Australian T. pentaphylla as well as to the Malesian T. celebica, T. elmeri and T. floresana. The fruit in T. papuana is large and has a thin, woody pericarp. In the resembling species the pericarp is leathery, collapsing on drying.