Trichosanthes pendula
Description
Climber, 10-20 m long, harshly grey or rusty hairy, hairs 0.5-2 mm long, partly late-glabrescent, leafy stem 2-5(-15) mm diam., conspicuously 4- or 5-angular or ribbed, the ribs green and hairy;
Leaves:
Inflorescences unisexual or possibly sometimes male and female flowers mixed.
Fruit solitary, ripening yellow-green, whitish striped, (narrowly) ovoid, 10-11.5 by 6-7 cm, apex c. 2 mm beaked;
Seeds whitish, pink, cream or pale brown, tumid, with two inflated lateral parts, 10-12 by 17-20 by c. 5 mm, margin absent, edge entire.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present (Sabah endemic), Lahat Datu endemic, Luasong endemic, Sandakan endemic, Sepilok Forest Reserve endemic, Tawau endemic
Malesia: Borneo, endemic to Sabah: Sandakan (Sepilok Forest Reserve), near Tawau (Lahat Datu), Luasong).
Morphology
3 The whole inflorescence, including the flowers, dries dark rusty brown, but in living plants all parts, including the hairs, are whitish and the petals pure white.
1 Trichosanthes pendula is isolated within Trichosanthes because of the prominently ribbed stem, the absent probract, the flowers which are in both male and female borne in compound, pendulous racemes, forming tassels, the synandrium with many whitish hairs between the thecae (also in T. mucronata), the (4- or) 5-lobed stigma, the presence of a disk consisting of 3 line-shaped thickenings adnate to the base of the receptacle tube, and the broad tumid seeds with inflated lateral parts (also in T. mucronata).
2 The older tassel-like pendulous inflorescences frequently appear densely bunched caused by numerous persistent pedicels, which are withered into straw-like appendages. Similar appendages, derived from peduncle or pedicel, are found in T. mucronata and in some species from New Guinea.