Volume 10 > Part 3 > Year 2010 > Page 347 > Convolvulaceae > Argyreia

8. Argyreia hookeri C.B.Clarkewfo-0000155259

in Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 4: 185. 1883; Ooststr. & Hoogland, Fl. Males. ser. 1, 4: 502. 1953; R.R.Mill, Fl. Bhutan 7(2): 842. 1999; Staples & Traiperm, Thai Forest Bull. (Bot.) 36: 102. 2008.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Herbaceous climber; stems robust, 3–10 m long, greyish-hairy. Leaves broadly ovate to orbicular, 8–18 by 8–18 cm, base cordate, apex shortly acuminate, mucronulate, upper side glabrous or nearly so, underside sparsely hairy, more densely along veins; lateral veins 9–11 pairs; petiole 4–7 cm, hairy like stem. Inflorescence long-stalked, few to many-fowered, cymosely branched; peduncle 8–28 cm long; lower bracts foliose, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 1.0–1.8 cm long, diminishing above, whitish sericeous outside; pedicels 5–8 mm, greyish appressed hairy. Flower: sepals lanceolate, acute, apex recurved, 3 outer 10–12 mm long, inner ca 9 mm, thinly white sericeous outside and inside at apex; corolla tubular-funnelform, 5.5–7 cm long, pink-purple, darker in centre, limb subentire, midpetaline bands hairy outside, otherwise glabrous; stamens included, filaments pilose basally; pistil included, ovary glabrous, 4-celled. Berries globose, 15–20 mm diam. Seeds 4 or fewer, black.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Tak; SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi.

Distribution : Nepal, India (syntype), Bhutan (syntype), Myanmar, Indonesia (naturalized on Java).

Ecology : Deciduous dipterocarp forests, mixed deciduous forests rich in bamboo, reported on limestone, 200–750 m alt. Flowering: July, November.

Notes: Based on 2 rather scrappy collections, Argyreia hookeri seems to occur naturally in the western border regions of Thailand.