Alsomitra macrocarpa

Content

Description

Climber, 30-50 m long, stem at base 15 cm thick. Leaves: Fruit green, ripening brown, opening with 3 incurving valves, 20-30 cm diam., with woody exocarp, c. 2 mm thick, smooth, glabrous, inside with a soft spongy layer, densely packed with winged seeds, line of perianth-scar 2-6 cm from the orifice; Seeds pale brown, 25-30 by 20-23 mm, faces smooth, margin distinct, edge entire, wing butterfly-like, silvery-white, membranous, 10-12 cm wide.

Distribution

Aru Islands present, Asia-Tropical: Bismarck Archipelago (Bismarck Archipelago present); Borneo present; Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present; Philippines (Philippines present); Sulawesi (Sulawesi present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), Papua New Guinea present, West Java present, West Papua present, southern Thailand present

Southern Thailand; in Malesia: Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, West Java, Philippines, Sulawesi, Moluccas (Aru Islands), New Guinea (West Papua, Papua New Guinea including Bismarck Archipelago).

Morphology

The juvenile plant is extraordinary. After germination the primary shoot develops as a thread-thin stem with rather spaced small oblong leaves, c. 1 cm long, creeping over the forest soil, and when a suitable tree trunk is reached it climbs up vertically by means of small, peltate adhesive discs at the end of the small bifid tendrils. By then the plant clings close to the substrate, with the leaves distichous, appressed, and closely set. While climbing, the leaves which are hastate and in an early phase also auriculate, gradually grow larger (and the stem only moderately thicker), until at a height of about 5 m the leaves are c. 5 cm long and start approaching the adult shape.

Citation

de Wit 1949 – In: Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg.: 193

Cogn. 1881 – In: A.DC. & C.DC., Monogr. Phan. 3: 927

Cogn. 1916: p. 262. – In: Engl., Pflanzenr. 66: f. 63, 64

Ser. 1828 – In: DC., Prodr. 3: 299

Warb. 1891 – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst.: 444

Hutch. 1942 – In: Ann. Bot. (Oxford): 96

Backer 1964 – In: Backer & Bakh.f., Fl. Java 1: 299

Rolfe 1920: Kew Bull.: 197

M.Roem. 2008 – In: Fl. Thailand: 416

Miq. 1856 – In: Fl. Ned. Ind.: 683

Cogn. 1916 – In: Engl., Pflanzenr. 66: 264

W.J.de Wilde & Duyfjes 2001 – In: Proc. Fourth Int. Fl. Males. Symp.: 103

Cogn. 1923 – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst.: 240

Gibbs 1917: Dutch NW New Guinea: 17, 51, 222

K.Schum. & Lauterb. 1901: Fl. Schutzgeb. Südsee: 589