Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Marsdenia glandulifera C.T.White


Slender Vine
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Herbarium sheet. CC-BY: ATH.
Family

White, C.T. (1945), The Queensland Naturalist 12: 54. Type: "Wide Bay District: Fraser Island, F.C. Epps (type: flowers).

Stem

Wiry vine up to 5 mm diameter, milky latex present. Stems hairless or with sparse hairs.

Leaves

Milky exudate present. Leaves simple, opposite. Stipules 2 per leaf, horn-like, 0.2-0.4 mm long, ± obscure. Petiole 2-3.5 cm long, grooved along top. Leaf blades elliptic to oblong-elliptic or ovate, rarely obovate, 2.5-14 cm long, 2-9 cm wide, base cordate, margin entire, apex acuminate and mucronate. A bundle of 8-12 colleters present at junction of leaf base with petiole. Venation with 6-8 pairs of lateral veins. Surfaces hairless or with scattered hairs on lower surface.

Flowers

Inflorescences axillary, flowers in umbels. Pedicels 4-18 mm long. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, 5-merous, 7-13 mm diam., cream. Sepals 5, ovate, partially connate, 2.5-4 mm long. Petals fused to form a corolla tube, campanulate (bell-shaped), tube 2.5-4 mm long, lobes spreading, 3.5-5.5 mm long, contorted in bud. Corolline corona of 5 ridges of hairs alternate to lobes. Staminal corona of 5 oblong lobes longer than the staminal column, overtopping style head. Staminal column of 5 stamens, connate into a gynostegium; gynoecium of 2 ± free carpels, ovaries superior, style head conical.

Fruit

Fruit a follicle, usually only one per flower, dry when mature, ovoid, 8-11 cm long, 5 cm, glaucous. Seed numerous, flattened, ovate to oblong, with a silky tuft of hairs.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Widely distributed along the coastal fringe of WA, NT, CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards to south-eastern Queensland. Grows in subtropical rainforest and rainforest in swampy areas or close to permanent water.

Natural History & Notes

This profile information and associated coding has been adapted from Cooper & Cooper (2004), Harden et al. (2014) and Forster (1995, 1996).

RFK Code
2702
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