Kadsura scandens
Family
Schisandraceae
Synonyms
Kadsura cauliflora Blume
Vernacular Names
| Malaysia | Bbelabar, akar dama-dama, kerukol akar. |
| Indonesia | Mendulai (Palembang), hunyur buut, ki lembur (Sundanese). |
Geographical Distributions
Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Java and Bali.
Description
It is a plant with unisexual flowers, woody liana up to 25 m long.
Leaves are alternate, simple, elliptical to egg-shaped and with entire margin. The texture of the leaf is papery to leathery with prominent leaf venation.
Flowers are usually solitary in axils of leaves or in axils of fugaceous bracts, occasionally with the flowers borne on the trunk, unisexual, fragrant with pedicel (4-)8-42(-70) mm long; floral leaves segments (7-)11-18, ovate to elliptical. The male flowers are with 24-52 stamens and pink to dark red, closely appressed in a nearly spherical to ellipsoid stamen, 4-6 mm in diametre, connectives broad with back-lateral thecae, while the female flowers with 50-82(-11-6) carpels, pistil 5-6.5 mm in diametre.
Fruit is a spherical aggregate, about 5 cm in diametre, consisting of 40-100 sessile berries. The fruit wall is greatly thickened distally, ripening red.
Seeds are 1-2 per berry, pear-shaped, discoid or kidney-shaped, approximately (4.5-) 5.5-8.5(-10) mm x (4-)5-9(-11) mm.
Ecology / Cultivation
K. scandens is found in humid lowland to montane forests from sea-level up to 2400 m altitude.
Line Drawing / Photograph
References
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Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2). 1998, Unesco.
