Aristolochia tagala
Family
Aristolochiaceae
Synonyms
Aristolochia roxburghiana Klotzsch, Aristolochia megalophylla K. Schumann, Aristolochiamindanaensis Warb.
Vernacular Names
| Malaysia | Akar ketola hutan, akar petola hutan (Peninsular). |
| English | Birthwort, Dutchman’s pipe. |
| Indonesia | Kalayar (Sundanese), puyan (Javanese), kunit (Sulawesi). |
| Philippines | Timbangan (Tagalog), goan-goan (Bisaya), nagerus (Iloko). |
| Thailand | Krachao pheemot, krachao mot (Central). |
| Vietnam | Ph[of]ng k[yr], d[aa]y kh[oos] r[as]ch. |
| French | Aristoloche. |
Geographical Distributions
This plant is distributed from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, through Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China (Cambodia, Vietnam), China and Thailand, to the whole of Malesia, the Solomon Islands and Australia (Queensland).
Description
This is a climber that can reach up to 20 m long. The branches are slightly furrowed with a diametre up to 5 mm.
The 6-20(-27) cm x 4-10(-16) cm leaves are usually egg-shaped to egg-shaped-oblong. They are heart-shaped at the base with rounded auricles. It is sparsely short-haired to sub-hairless underneath with 2 pairs of basal veins. There are 3-5 pairs of secondary veins and loosely reticulate or crossbar-like tertiary veins.
The flowers are in raceme-like or resembling an indeterminate branches raceme-like inflorescence, 1-lipped whole floral leaves, with faint venation that is either pale yellowish or greenish to purplish or dark reddish-brown.
The fruit is nearly globular and slightly pear-shaped or oblong that up to 4 cm long.
The seeds are winged.
Ecology / Cultivation
A. tagala occurs in forest and thickets, usually up to 800 m altitude, but in Thailand up to 1050 m and in New Guinea up to 1350 m.
Line Drawing / Photograph
References
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Plant Resources of South-East Asia No.12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1.
