Neoachmandra nesophila
Content
Description
Annual or subperennial 1-3 m long climber;
Leaves:
Fruit solitary (or 2), ripening green-red or green with darker stripes or yellow, narrowly ellipsoid, 2-4 by 1.2-1.5 cm, base rounded, apex ± narrowed into an acute-acuminate c. 5 mm long beak;
Seeds numerous, 3.5-4.5 by 2-3 mm, margin faint, at base with a wing.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Lesser Sunda Is. present; Maluku (Maluku present); Philippines (Philippines present), Banda present, East Java present, Flores present, Halmahera present, Lombok present, Luzon present, Mindoro present, North Sulawesi present, Sumbawa present, Timor present
East Java; Philippines (Luzon, Mindoro); North Sulawesi; Lesser Sunda Islands (Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Timor (deviating, see note 1)); Moluccas (Halmahera, Banda).
Taxonomy
2 Neoachmandra nesophila, as it is conceived here, comprises specimens with an unusual variation in fruit size: 2-4 cm long. A number of specimens from the same distributional area, mostly rather incomplete, resemble N. nesophila but have smaller fruits, 1.5-2 cm long, without the ornamentation of fine darker-coloured patches and dots. These specimens also resemble the type and only collection of N. idenburgensis, from West Papua, although the latter is so much different in other characters from N. nesophila that it is retained here as a distinct species. The true status of the smaller-fruited specimens alluded to above remains uncertain. A choice of these specimens is: Clemens 18282 (Luzon); Conklin & Del Rosario PNH 72640 (Mountain Province, 2000 m); Ramos & Edaño BS 44466 (Sulu Islands); Gaerlan PPI 23101 (Mindanao, 2110 m); De Haan 1769 (Halmahera, 20 m).
1 Two collections from Timor, Forbes 3919 & 3957, from c. 700 m altitude, deviate in the petiole and lower leaf surface, bearing rather dense and soft hairs, and in the much longer male pedicels which are 20-60 mm long. The seeds are similar to those of N. nesophila. More material is needed to elucidate whether we are dealing with a separate taxon.
3 In De Wilde & Duyfjes 21935, in spirit, from Lombok, the connective is of a firm but watery texture and bears the described protrusion. This protrusion was not seen in boiled dried flowers in other collections. Probably the details of the connective largely get lost during the drying process.