Volume 9 > Part 4 > Year 2008 > Page 526 > Cucurbitaceae > Trichosanthes

9. Trichosanthes phonsenae Duyfjes & Pruesapanwfo-0000408109

Thai Forest Bull. (Bot.) 32: 91. 2004. Fig. 45; Plate XL: 1–2.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Climber 7–15 m long; wholly setose, hairs stiff, grey or brown, 2–4 mm long; plant green (not reddish tinged), petals white; cystoliths not obvious; stem 3–4 mm diam. Probract absent. Tendrils 2–5-branched, portion below point of branching ca 1.5 cm long. Leaves: blade deeply 5-lobed to ca ⅔ deep, suborbicular in outline, 16–31 by 13–28 cm, hairy on both surfaces, glands several to many, less than 0.5 mm diam.; base cordate with broad sinus, mid-lobe oblong, to 17 cm long; margin entire; apex acute-acuminate, to 15 mm long mucronate; petiole 8–13 cm long. Male inflorescences: flowers either solitary, a raceme or inflorescences composed of several racemes arranged in loose lateral shoots, 50–100 cm long, on the older wood (where stem 10–12 mm thick), each raceme with a reduced leaf or linear bract 10–20 mm long and with or without a reduced tendril at the node; raceme lax, (6–)10–20 cm long, hairy, mostly co axillary with a densely hairy old pedicel 5–13 cm long (without flower); peduncle (3–)12–14 cm long, ca 2 mm thick; rachis with 3–8 flowers; bracts mostly inserted on the pedicel below the middle, persistent, ± rhomboid, 15–25 by 5–15 mm, apex acuminate, mucronate, with minute glands, margin entire. Male flowers wholly ± densely brown-hairy, hairs 2–4 mm long; pedicel 5–40 mm long; receptacle-tube ca 20 mm long, at throat ca 10 mm diam., base faintly swollen, forming a cup-shaped ‘pseudo-ovary’; sepals narrowly triangular or linear, 15–20 mm long, 2–3 mm wide at base, margin entire; petals finely hairy, wedge-shaped, 15–20 mm long, threads ca 10 mm long; synandrium ca 10 mm long, with anthers closely appressed but free, filaments ca 3 mm long, hairy at the base, inserted towards the base in the tube, at apex of ‘pseudo ovary’. Female flowers: pedicel 50–80 mm long; ovary narrowly ellipsoid, ca 35 by 10 mm, densely hairy; corolla as in male. Fruits (slightly immature) green, white striped, narrowly ellipsoid, ca 15 by 6–8 cm; pericarp fleshy; exocarp thin, leathery, sparsely hairy, glabrescent; pulp whitish; fruiting pedicel ca 11 by 0.3 cm. Seeds (immature) compressed, elliptc, ca 1 cm long, margin entire.

Thailand : SOUTH-WESTERN: Phetchaburi (Kaeng Krachan NP – type: Phonsena, de Wilde & Duyfjes 4002, holotype -BKF, isotype -L).

Distribution : Endemic.

Ecology : Evergreen lower montane forests, on shales. Roadside and forests edges, 700–900 m alt. Flowering and fruiting: September.

Vernacular : Taeng phanoen thung (แตงพะเนินทุ่ง).