Volume 5 > Part 3 > Year 1991 > Page 330 > Menispermaceae > Cyclea

5. Cyclea laxiflora Mierswfo-0000632067

(Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 3, 18: 19. 1866, nomen), Contr. Bot. 3: 241. 1871; Diels in Pflanzenr. Menisp.: 317. 1910; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 1: 114. 1922; Burk., Diet. 1: 722. (1935); Forman, Kew Bull. 14: 75. 1960; in Fl. Males. I. 10: 241. 1986; Kew Bull. 43: 389. 1988.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Slender climber, up to ca 15 m, stems hispid to glabrous, herbaceous or slightly woody. Leaves peltate, triangular-ovate, deltoid-ovate or broadly ovate, 9–16 by 5–13.5 cm, base truncate to slightly emarginate, apex acutely acuminate with acumen finely mucronate, margin usually hispid; sparsely hispid to glabrescent above, fairly densely hispid to puberulous or subtomentose below, papyraceous; petioles usually hispid, (1.3–)4–6.2 cm, attached 8–22 mm above the base of the lamina. Male inflorescence: axillary; flowers borne in clusters on a lax thyrse, 15–55 by 10–20 cm, puberulous. Male flowers with pedicels, 1–2 mm; calyx white or cream, campanulate, glabrous, 1–1.5 mm long; lobes 4, broadly triangular, about half the length of tube; petals 4, free, 0.5 mm long, glabrous; synandrium ca 1 mm long, shortly exserted. Female inflorescences cauliflorous (± always), similar to male, 10–35 by 2.5–10 cm. Female flowers on pedicels, ca 0.5 mm, petals and sepals unknown (± early caducous); carpels 1 mm long, pilose or glabrous; stigma with 3 filiform, divaricate lobes. Drupes white, obliquely obovate to rotund in outline, 5–8 by 4–6 mm, sparsely pubescent; endocarp bearing 3 rows of papilliform tubercles on both faces.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Yala (Bannang Sata, only collection Kerr 7398).

Distribution : Malay Peninsula (type), Sumatra, Anamba Islands

Ecology : In evergreen forests, at 100 m alt.

Uses: According to BURKILL a decoction made from the roots is used medicinally for fever, piles, following childbirth and as a vermifuge for children.