Ancistrocladus heyneanus
Ancistrocladus heyneanus, Cat. Pl. Bombay: 28. 1839 sec. Taylor & al. 20051
- –Ancistrocladus heyneanus, Numer. List: n. 7262. 1832, nom. nud., syn. sec. ???2
- Holotype: Locality unknown but presumably India, s.d., Herb. Heyne s.n. in Wallich Numer. List 7262 (holotype, K; isotypes, BM, C, K-WALL)
Notes
We have seen no well-preserved flowers of this species. Wight (1853: t. 1987-1988) depicted the flowers of this species as similar in morphology to most other species of Ancistrocladus, and as having sepals about equal in length to the petals and the longer stamen filaments about V3 as long as the petals. Das (1993) described this species as having filaments 6-9 mm long, which implies that the petals, at three times the length of the longer filaments, are ca. 27 mm long, which does not agree with any other descriptions of this species, nor with his own description of the petals as 6-8 mm long. Ramamoorthy (1976) described A. heyneanus as having nine stamens with four reduced to staminodes, but this appears to be a misinterpretation of Ancistrocladus’s unequal but all fertile stamens. Ancistrocladus heyneanus is very similar to A. tectorius of southeast Asia. These are distinguished by the lengths of their petals, 6-7 mm long in A. heyneanus versus 3.2-5.5 mm long in A. tectorius, and by their disjunct geographic ranges. We disagree with the suggestion by Ramamoorthy (1976) and Harriman (1987) that A. heyneanus may be conspecific with A. hamatus of Sri Lanka; the distinctions between these two species are outlined in the discussion of A. hamatus.
Habitat
Seasonal to evergreen forests, low elevations in the Western Ghats mountains of southwestern India.
Description
Juvenile plants unknown. Juvenile leaves unknown. Adult stems climbing with height not noted, to 1 cm diam. [probably becoming larger but no data], not twining, sparingly branched, with bark purplish brown, smooth to markedly roughened, bearing a few scattered leaves and lateral branches to 25 cm long, these each bearing 1 to several hooks and usually a cluster of leaves; hooks recurved to spiraling, 10-18 mm diam. Adult leaves drying chartaceous to subcoriaceous, on both surfaces somewhat shiny to matte, in life concolorous (pers. obs., CMT, MO greenhouse), when dry concolorous or a little discolorous, brown or gray to brownish green or grayish green; pits dimorphic, small pits frequent to dense on both surfaces, large pits ca. 0.4 mm diam., round to elliptic, present on only some leaves, 2 to 6 per leaf on abaxial surface; midrib adaxially plane to a little prominulous, abaxially prominulous to prominent, terminating in a tiny gland; secondary veins thinly prominulous on both surfaces; tertiary veins finely reticulated and narrowly prominulous on both surfaces; margins plane; stem leaves with persistence unknown, obovate or oblanceolate, 6.2-11.1 X 2.4-4.8 cm, L/W 2.0-3.2, at apex rounded, at base truncate to broadly attenuate; secondary veins poorly denned, 8 to 10 pairs, intramarginal vein not evident; leaves at branchlet apices with persistence unknown, narrowly oblanceolate to elliptic-oblong, 9.2-49.5 X 2.9-11.0 cm, L/W 2.1-6.3, at apex acute to shortly acuminate or occasionally obtuse, at base narrowly cuneate to acute; secondary veins 9 to 12 pairs, with intramarginal vein situated 2-4 mm from margin. Inflorescence lax, paniculate, lateral, subter-minal, or apparently terminal among leaves at apices of branchlets, without hooks, rarely bearing bracteal leaves similar to adult stem leaves; peduncle 0.6-4.0 cm long, often rather stout; branched portion corymbiform, 2.5-15.0 X 4-25 cm, dichotomously branched 1 or 2 times, subsequently racemiform; bracts ovate to elliptic, 1.5-3.0 mm long, at apex obtuse to acute, at base obtuse, abaxially with a round gland occupying ½ - 2/3 of surface; pedicels 0-1 mm long. Flowers sessile to pedicellate; sepals 5, elliptic -oblong, rounded at apex, at base truncate and shortly decurrent on ovary, color unknown, 1 to 3 sepals abaxially with 2 or 3 elliptic glands ca. 0.2 mm diam., adaxially smooth or with moderately to densely distributed small pits, equal or subequal, 6.0-6.5 X 3.0-3.5 mm; petals 5, con-volute, elliptic to obovate, color unknown, 6.0-7.0 X 4.0-4.5 mm; stamens 10 in 1 whorl; filaments stout, pyramidal, apparently subequal, 1.0-1.5 mm long; anthers ca. 0.5 mm long; ovary fully inferior, 2-3 mm long; styles and stigmas not seen. Fruit turbinate; nut ca. 5 X 5 mm, on sides longitudi-nally shallowly 4- or 5-ridged by decurrent margins of accrescent sepals; persistent sepal limbs spread-ing, chartaceous to papyraceous, unequal, larger 3 sepals oblanceolate, 25-40 X 12-17 mm, smaller 2 sepals narrowly oblong to spathulate or oblanceolate, 19-26 X 5-7 mm; pericarp drying light to cinnamon brown, coriaceous; seed not seen.