Volume 4 > Part 3.3 > Year 2023 > Page 650 > Leguminosae-Papilionoideae > Pueraria

2. Pueraria candollei Graham ex Benth.wfo-0000193845

in Miq., PI. Jungh. 2: 235. 1852 (as P. candollei Wall.); Benth., Bot. J. Linn. Soc, London 9: 123. 1867; Baker in Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 2(4): 197. 1876; Craib, Contrib. Fl. Siam., Dicot.: 64. 1912; Gagnep., Fl. Indo-Chine 2: 255. 1916; Maesen, Agric. Univ. Wageningen Pap. 85(1): 23, 63. 1985; in M.Sørensen, Proc. 1st Int. Symp. Tuber. Legumes: 62. 1994 & in Keung, Pueraria: The genus Pueraria: 11. 2002; Niyomdham, Nord. J. Bot. 12(3): 345. 1992.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Woody climber, branches ribbed with age, with sparsely grey to brown-adpressed pubescent hairs, glabrescent, climbing up to 12 m long. Stipules elliptic, 6–10 by 2–5 mm, base obtuse, apex obtuse, caducous. Leaves 12–20 cm long; rachis ca 3 cm long. Leaflets: petiolules to 1.1 cm long; terminal leaflet ovate, 12–24 by 8.5–20 cm; lateral leaflets obliquely ovate, 10–22 by 8–18 cm, apex long-acuminate, base broadly cuneate to truncate; upper surface sparsely grey-pubescent to glabrate; lower surface more thickly grey-adpressed pubescent; lateral veins 6–8 pairs, prominent; stipels ovate, 3–5 by 1–3 mm. Flowering without the leaves. Inflorescences paniculate, pendulous, 3–8 cm long; branches usually many, from near the base (rarely unbranched), ridged, with hairs short, grey pubescent; pedicels 1–3(–5) mm long. Flowers: bractlets subtending pedicels 10 by 1–2 mm, striate, dorsally long-pubescent, ventrally short-pubescent, early caducous; bracteoles triangular to ovate, 1–2 by ca 1 mm, brown-pubescent. Calyx purplish to brown, outside sparsely pubescent to densely adpressed-pubescent, longer hairs on lobe, inside less so, or only near point where lobes adjoin tube inside; tube 2–5 mm long; lobes 4, short, deltoid, obtuse, upper two connate, upper lobes 2–6 mm long, lateral lobes 1–5 mm long, lower lobe 1–6 mm long. Corolla: standard petal blue to purple or lilac, margin inflexed, 8–18 by 8–15 mm; wings bluish purple, lanceolate, 8–17 by 2–5 mm, base with claw 2–4 mm long, auricle to 1.5 mm long; keel bluish purple, rounded to sharply curved along the base, 8–17 mm long, ventrally adnate, apex rounded. Stamens monadelphous; vexillary stamen attached in the middle, 9–15 mm long, free part 1–4 mm, upcurved. Ovary 5–10 mm long, silky grey-pubescent, 7–10-ovuled; style 1.5–2 mm as flattened extension of ovary, 2–3 mm perpendicularly upcurved, almost glabrous. Pods blonde to rusty-brown, 3–8 by 0.7–1.1 cm, apex acuminate, base narrow-rounded, glabrous to short, adpressed-pubescent to spreading-pubescent with hairs to 2 mm long. Seeds reddish brown to brown-purple, reniform, 2–5 by 1.5–4 mm, ca 1 mm thick, minutely pitted to smooth; hilum oval-shaped, ca 1 mm long.

Thailand : Found throughout, but more especially in northern, north-east, south-west and central provinces.

Ecology : Climbing along forest edge, along streams or lake banks, over limestone rocks, and in open situations of deciduous scrub forest.

Notes: The variability in characters and number of intermediate forms has created confusion within Pueraria candollei. Plants found in Thailand are mostly the small-flowered mirifica variety, with the larger flowered candollei variety found rarely at higher elevations. Until completion of molecular or morphometric studies, species in this complex are recognized herein as described by van der Maesen (2002).