Agelaea macrophylla (Zoll.) Leenh.
Family
Connaraceae
Synonyms
Agelaea wallichii Hook.f., Agelaea trinervis (Llanos) Merr., Castanola macrophylla Schellenb.
Vernacular Names
| Malaysia | Akar pinang kutai, akar nyamok, kelentit nyamok (Peninsular). |
| Indonesia | Areuy koko-tokan (Sundanese), anceng (Javanese), akar tanduk (Sumatra). |
| Philippines | Tayabak, ulali (Tagalog), dagtung (Manobo). |
| Thailand | Thao som ching (Surat Thani), ma khroh (Krabi). |
| Vietnam | D[aa]y tr[uw][owf]ng ng[aa]n. |
Geographical Distributions
A. macrophylla occurs in Indo-China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo, the Moluccas and the Philippines.
Description
This is a large liana, with stem up to 4 cm in diametre. The leaf stalk is up to 15 cm long while the stipules are absent.
The leaves are with three leaflets. The leaflets are egg-shaped to elliptical-oblong, about 4-34 cm x 2-14 cm. They are entire. The upper surface has many mucous cells, which looks like small pits in dried material.
Inflorescence is an axillary, paniculate and often several together in the axil of a sometimes-rudimentary leaf, up to 5 cm long. Flowers are bisexual, (4-)5-merous, up to 6 mm long, sweet-scented and more or less heterodistylous. Pedicels are jointed. The sepals are nearly free. Petals are much longer than sepals, free and whitish. There are 10 stamens, shortly united at base with 5 are slightly longer than the other 5. The carpels are 5, superior and free.
Fruit is consisting of 1-5 follicles, obovoid, with or without a beak at the apex, velvety, orange to red, dehiscing by a ventral suture and 1-seeded.
Seeds are fleshy, yellow to red testa in lower part and black but glossy testa in upper part. They are without endosperm.
The cotyledons are thick and planoconvex.
Ecology / Cultivation
A. macrophylla occurs in all kinds of forest, primary as well as secondary, on marshy soils to limestone rocks, up to 800 m altitude.
Line Drawing / Photograph
References
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Plant Resources of South-East Asia No.12(3): Medicinal and poisonous plants 3. 2003.
