Trichosanthes postarii
Content
Description
Much branched spacious liana, 10-20 m long, scabrous pale brown hairy, hairs 1 mm long;
Leaves:
Inflorescences on leafless shoots hanging down close to the forest floor.
Fruit on leafless shoots, one or two per infructescence, ripening green, white-striped, narrowly ellipsoid, 13-16 by 4.5-5.5 cm, base subobtuse, apex acute, pericarp thin, pulp white, bitter;
Seeds compressed, circular, 10 mm diam., margin broad, radiately ribbed.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present (Sabah endemic), Langanan Waterfall endemic, Maliau Valley endemic, Poring endemic
Malesia: Borneo (endemic to Sabah where known from Poring (Langanan Waterfall) and Maliau Valley).
Morphology
1 Pendulous shoots, mostly without leaves but with only flowers, are found in the shady zone near the forest floor. Sterile shoots often creep for some distance over the ground, a habit also known from other species, e.g. T. villosa.
2 The single or 2- (or 3-)fascicled male racemes at a node indicate that these racemes actually may be borne on a very short lateral shoot, similar to that in T. pendula. In most Trichosanthes species there is only one single male raceme at a node, with or without a single co-axillary male flower.