Neosepicaea viticoides Diels

Diels, L. (1972) Botanische Jahrbucher 57 : 500. Type: Neu-Guinea: Sepik-Gebiet, Aprilfluss, Standlager, in gut gangbarem Urwald, etwa 100 m . (Lederman n. 8665.Bluhend am 12. Sept. 1912).

Cape York Jungle Vine; Vine, Cape York Jungle

Vine stem diameters to 8 cm recorded. Living bark layer quite thick. Blaze odour like fresh beans (Phaseolus vulgaris).

Usually 3 or 5 leaflets in each compound leaf. Leaflet blades about 7-25 x 2-8 cm, leaflet stalks about 1-5 mm long. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin.

Calyx green to brown, tubular, irregularly divided at the apex into four or five segments. Corolla tube about 4 mm long and about 2.5 mm diam. near the base but expanded to a much greater extent at the apex, lobes triangular, about 6-7 mm long. Outer and inner surfaces of the corolla shortly hairy but the throat +/- filled with long hairs. Stamens about 10 mm long. Anthers wider than long, cells divaricate, margins clothed in hairs. Ovary abut 2 x 1 mm, enveloped in a close-fitting disk about as high as the ovary.

Capsules about 8-10 x 2.5-3 cm, surface irregularly ridged. Seeds numerous, each seed with a thin papery wing. Seed + wing about 15 x 30-35 mm. Cotyledons deeply bilobed, wider than long, about 7-8 x 10 mm. Radicle about 1 mm long.

Cotyledons +/- reniform, bilobed at the apex, the lobes overlapping one another, base auriculate. Cotyledons about 12-15 x 15-18 mm. First pair of leaves elliptic, base attenuate. At the tenth leaf stage: seedling completely glabrous, leaf blade elliptic, apex acuminate, base attenuate. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin. Seed germination time 17 days.

Occurs in CYP. Altitudinal range probably not great (but only known from a few collections) from near sea level to 300 m. Grows in rain forest and gallery forest. Also occurs in New Guinea.