Decalobanthus peltatus (L.) A.R.Simoes & Staples

Simoes, A.R. & Staples, G.W. (2017) Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 183: 571.

Vine stem diameters to 9 cm recorded. Bark exudate copious. Vessels very large and conspicuous, readily visible to the naked eye.

Twigs and petioles produce a milky or pale yellow exudate. Leaf blades about 7.5-25 x 7-20 cm, peltate, petioles about 3-24 cm long. Scattered hairs usually visible along the lateral veins on the underside of the leaf blade. 'Oil dots' often tear-drop shaped.

Flowers large, about 5-6 cm diam., perfume unpleasant. Sepals thick and fleshy, about 20-25 mm long. Corolla tube about 45 mm long, lobes about 15 mm long. Stamens attached near the base of the corolla tube, filaments about 8-20 mm long, basal section clothed in curly hairs, anthers about 5-11 mm long, curled in a spiral, tuberculate, pollen white. Ovary about 25 mm long, ovules 2 per locule. Disk 2-5 mm high. Style about 18 mm long, stigma globular or 2-lobed, tuberculate (?)

Fruits globose, about 20 x 10-15 mm, surrounded by the persistent sepals. Seeds up to 4 per fruit, each seed about 8-10 x 4 mm. Testa densely clothed in long brown hairs. Cotyledons folded in a complex fashion with sections of endosperm between the folds. Radicle slightly curved, about 4-5 mm long.

Cotyledons about 22-30 x 50-60 mm with two divaricate arms or lobes so that each cotyledon has the outline shape of a boomerang. Midrib forking below the apex and not extending to the apex. First leaves ovate, apex acuminate, base peltate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade ovate, apex very narrowly acuminate (caudate), base peltate. Midrib raised on the upper surface. Stems twining. Seed germination time 15 days.

Occurs in NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 300 m. Grows in well developed lowland rain forest particularly after disturbance. Also occurs in Madagascar, the Mascarenes and the Seychelles, Malesia and the Pacific islands.

Merremia peltata (L.) Merr., An Interpretation of Rumphius's Herbarium Amboinensis : 441 (1917). Ipomoea peltata (L.) Choisy, Memoires de la Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve 6 : 452 (1833). Convolvulus peltatus L., Species plantarum : 1194(1753). Argyreia soutteri (Bailey) Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(6): 1087 (1928). Ipomoea menispermacea Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 1089 (1928), Type: Nordost-Queensland: Regenwalder bei Harveys Creek, mit dunkelgranem Laub; dichte Gehange bilden (DOMIN I. 1910).