Trichosanthes intermedia
Content
Description
Subherbaceous climber, 2-8 m long, minutely hairy (except inflorescences), glabrescent, leafy stem 1.5-3.5 mm diam.;
Leaves:
Inflorescences:
Fruit mostly solitary, green, ripening evenly red, ovoid or globose, 6-9 by 6-7 cm, pericarp when fresh 5(-10) mm thick, much thinner when dry;
Seeds brown, compressed, (narrowly) elliptic, 15(-20) mm long (see note 3), 7-9 mm wide, base truncate-rounded, margin narrow and a low ridge in the middle, edge entire.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present (Sabah present, Sarawak present), Sg Sipayan present
Malesia: Borneo (Sarawak (Sg Sipayan) and Sabah).
Taxonomy
1 Trichosanthes intermedia can be confused with T. wawrae, T. longispicata, and T. refracta. The latter, a species from peaty forest in Brunei and Philippines, differs in sinuate male racemes and lack of glands on the bracts. Trichosanthes longispicata from Sarawak is similar, but stouter, and differs in larger 5-7-lobed leaves and male pedicels about as long as the bracts. In T. wawrae (Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, West Java, not known with certainty from Sabah) the leaves may be entire, lobed or compound, the leaflets distinctly petioluled, its male racemes are generally more slender and the male flowers lack the pseudo-ovary, its seeds are generally broader. The differences between T. intermedia and T. wawrae need more study, however.
3 The collection Chew, Corner & Stainton RSBN 1204 (Kinabalu) differs in having a long fruiting pedicel, c. 4 cm long, and larger seeds, c. 20 mm long.
2 The phenomenon of a pseudo-ovary in male flowers is caused by the presence of a thick cup- or cushion-shaped disc at the bottom of the receptacle-tube, and becomes apparent on drying, resembling an ovary, which in the female flowers, of course, is inferior below the receptacle-tube. A pseudo-ovary is absent in the resembling T. longi-spicata, but occurs in T. refracta, and in the non-resembling T. villosa.