Trichosanthes auriculata
Content
Description
Climber, sometimes creeping and rooting at the nodes, 15 m long, at first with minute hairs, glabrescent, leafy stem 3-5 mm diam.;
Leaves:
Fruit 1-4 per infructescence, ripening green with paler or yellowish streaks, broad-ellipsoid, c. 10 by 7 cm, apex c. 6 mm beaked;
Seeds brown, compressed, subcircular, 8-10 by c. 1 mm, margin broad, radiately ribbed, entire.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present (Sabah present, Sarawak present), West, Central, East Kalimantan present
Malesia: Borneo (Sarawak; Sabah; West, Central, East Kalimantan).
Taxonomy
1 The limited material available suggests that this species may be (partly) monoecious. There is one collection of a twig with male racemes and a detached fruit, and one other collection with stout racemes with two fruits and numerous persistent pedicels possibly of male flowers. The elongate shape of the folded petals in male buds and the habit of creeping and rooting at the nodes are reminiscent of the genus Gymnopetalum.
2 The present species occupies an isolated position within the genus Trichosanthes, particularly by its seeds with radiately ribbed margin, and the gland-bearing auricles at the blade base; the latter characters are also found in T. postarii.