Merremia dissecta (PROSEA)

• Convolvulus dissectus Jacq. (1767),
• Ipomoea sinuata Ortega (1798).

• Noon-flower (En).

Native to the New World, from Florida to Argentina and Uruguay, but introduced into West tropical Africa, India, the Pacific islands and South-East Asia.

In Cuba, an infusion of the leaves is taken as a sedative in chest complaints. A poultice of crushed fresh leaves is applied as a resolutive and sedative for inflammations. In Africa, a cold infusion is a remedy for giddiness, snake bites or intoxication. In Curaçao, a hot infusion is taken to relieve urinary infection. Reports from India suggest that it is poisonous to cattle. In South-East Asia it is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental, and occasionally escapes. Medicinal use is not known from this region, although it certainly has some potential.

• A perennial, slender twiner, 3-6 m long, patently hirsute with yellow hairs, adult parts woody, glabrescent and warty.
• Leaves rounded in outline, palmately divided nearly to the base, segments 5-7, middle segment 2.5-10 cm × 0.5-3 cm, lateral ones smaller, apex mucronulate, margin coarsely dentate to irregularly pinnately lobed, petiole 2.5-7 cm long.
• Flowers few together, peduncle 5-10 cm long; flower-buds narrowly ovoid, acute, pedicel 1.5-2 cm long, sepals subequal, 2-2.5 cm long, ovate-lanceolate, acute, margin scarious, enlarged in fruit, corolla funnel-shaped, 3-3.5 cm long, white, throat rose-purple, mid-petaline bands distinct, anthers spirally twisted.
• Capsule globose, glabrous.
• Seed glabrous, black.

M. dissecta occurs in open grasslands and along roadsides, from sea-level up to 300 m altitude.

142, 647, 696.

Muhammad Mansur