Uncaria lanosa var. appendiculata (Benth.) Ridsdale

Rubiaceae

Ridsdale, C.E. (1978) Blumea 24: 88.

Vine stem diameters to 5 cm recorded.

Leaf blades about 8-12 x 3.5-6.5 cm, petioles about 4-8 mm long. Both the upper and lower leaf blade surfaces clothed in brownish +/- prostrate hairs. Domatia are tufts of hair. Stipules caducous, bilobed at the apex, each stipule about 7-10 x 9 mm, margins serrate and ciliate. Twigs square in transverse section, densely clothed in brown hairs particularly when young. Recurved horn-like hooks or tendrils produced in pairs just above the leaf axils, these hooks are formed from short modified branches or modified inflorescences.

Flowers produced in many-flowered umbels. Umbels about 5-6 cm diam. at anthesis. Peduncles about 2 cm long. Floral bracts at the top of the peduncle are about 10-13 mm long and clothed in hairs. Pedicels about 3 mm long. Calyx (hypanthium) hairy, tube about 5 mm long (free part about 2 mm long) lobes twisted, about 3-5 mm long with a pair of glands at the base. Epicalyx lobes much smaller. Corolla glabrous or minutely hairy, tube about 10-14 mm long, lobes about 2-3 mm long. Anthers about 2 mm long, sessile. Style about 14-19 mm long. Stigma +/- clavate, about 2 mm long.

Fruits borne in umbellate clusters of about 50-60 fruits. Fruits spindle-shaped, about 10 x 25 mm on a stalk about 8 mm long. Calyx lobes filiform, about 3 mm long, persistent at the apex of the fruit. Fruits normally opening along one suture. Each seed with a distinct filiform wing or appendage on each side. Seeds about 0.3 mm diam., each wing about 3 x 0.4 mm, i.e. seed + wings about 5-6 mm long. Embryo about 0.15 mm long, radicle longer than the cotyledons.

Cotyledons ovate to elliptic, about 1 mm long. Hypocotyl clothed with small gland-like trichomes which are visible with a lens. First pair of leaves obovate, glabrous, about as large as the cotyledons or slightly larger. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic, apex acuminate, base cuneate, midrib raised on the upper surface. Lateral veins about 8 on side of the midrib. Upper and lower leaf blade surfaces and the stem densely clothed in erect white hairs. Stipules green, hairy, about 5 x 6 mm, apices deeply incised. Seed germination time 83 to 89 days.

Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from sea level to 400 m. Grows in well developed lowland rain forest. Uncaria lanosa also occurs in Asia, Malesia, Taiwan and some Pacific islands.

Uncaria lanosa f. appendiculata (Benth.) Ridsdale, Blumea 24: 88(1978). Uncaria appendiculata Benth., Hook., Lond. J. Bot 2: 222(1843), Type: Hinds s.n.; holo: K.