Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Trichosanthes morrisii W.E.Cooper


Vine
Slender Vine
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Male bracts. © I. Morris
Leaves and male inflorescence. © Australian Tropical Herbarium
Leaves, tendrils. © Australian Tropical Herbarium
A. Male bract. B. seeds. C. Male sepal. D. Leaf underside with glands, tendril and male inflorescence. W.T. Cooper. Reproduced from Austrobaileya 8(3)
Family

Cooper, W.E. & de Boer, H.J. (2011) Austrobaileya 8(3): 381-383. Type: Australia: Northern Territory, Kakadu National Park, near Gubara Saddle, 28 December 2010, W.E.Cooper 2128, I. Morris & R.Dempster (holo: CNS [2 sheets + spirit]; iso: BR, BRI, CANB, DNA, L, MO, P, UPS).

Stem

A slender vine to 6 m, stem diameter to 2 cm, cream with black warts; young branchlets 7-ribbed. Tendrils 2-4-branched.

Leaves

Leaf simple, 3-5-lobed (juveniles unlobed or remotely 3-lobed); blades 8-17 x 6.8-16 cm, base cordate; petioles 2.2-6 cm long; sparsely hairy; margin denticulate; glands sparse near base and towards apex.

Flowers

Male and female flowers on different plants. Male flowers: flowers racemose usualy beside a solitary flower, up to 11-flowered; peduncles 9.5-10.5 cm long; bracts reticulate, apex acuminate, attenuate or cuneate base; pedicel on solitary flowers ca. 40 mm long; sepals rhomboid, 3-veined, hairy; petals not seen. Female flowers not seen.

Fruit

Fruits globose, apex beaked, 3.6-5.5 cm, orange to red; probract persistent at base; mesocarp firm, 7-9 mm wide; pedicel to 18 mm long x 7-9 mm wide; seeds several, flat, oblong, both end obtuse, 11.2-12 mm long x 6.8-7.4 mm wide x 3.7-4.2 mm deep; testa brown; suspended in greenish-black pulp.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NT, known from Kakadu National Park and Groote Eylandt. Altitudinal range from near sea level to about 65 m. Grows in Allosyncarpia-dominated forest in gorges on sandstone escarpments and in riparian evergreen vineforest on coastal dunes.

Synonyms
Trichosanthes sp. Kakadu (C.R.Dunlop 6639), [Provisional Phrase Name].
RFK Code

2709

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