Description
Key Characters:
Growth Form:
Lianas.
Stems:
Roots:
Leaves:
Leaves simple.
Alternate.
Blades 3–lobed, 3–8 cm long, 4–10 cm wide.
Upper surfaces sparsely pubescent especially along veins; lower surfaces densely pubescent.
Margins serrate.
Petioles with 6–8 subsessile nectaries ca. 0.5 mm long.
Stipules orbicular, 5–7 mm long, margins coarsely dentate, persistent.
Flowers:
Flowers solitary; bracts 3, ovate, coherent at base; hypanthium green, tubular, 1–1.5 cm long.
Flowers bisexual (perfect), actinomorphic, 9–11.8 cm in diameter.
Calyx of 5 sepals, scarlet, imbricate, persistent.
Corolla of 5 petals, scarlet, alternate with the sepals, imbricate, corona dark purple, in a single series, with teeth ca. 2–3 mm long.
Stamens 5(–8), on an androgynophore; 5 whorls of filaments; anthers dithecal, versatile, opening by longitudinal slits.
Ovary superior, 3-carpellate, 1-celled, stipitate, placentation parietal; ovules numerous, anatropous; styles as many as carpels.
Fruit:
Berries green; obovate to oblong; 3.5–5.5 cm long; 3–3.7 cm wide.
Seeds numerous; seed coat bony; reticulate; with a fleshy apical aril; embryo embedded in copious oily; soft fleshy endosperm.
Ploidy:
2n = 18
Habitat:
Disturbed sites in diverse mesic forest.
Elevation Range:
1030–1220 m.