Diplocyclus palmatus (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Diplocyclus palmatus (L.) C. Jeffrey

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Synonyms

• Bryonopsis affinis (Endl.) Cogn.,
• B. laciniosa auct., non L. et non (L.) Naudin.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: korek kotok (West Java), dudu songot (Java), walaan in cawok (Sulawesi)
• Papua New Guinea: kongakongo (Pidgin)
• Philippines: melong-uwak (Tagalog), buntik (Hanunoo), bayong (Bagobo)
• Thailand: khika-lai (central)
• Vietnam: (dây) song qua.

Distribution

Indigenous in the Old World tropics, including South-East Asia. It is occasionally cultivated.

Uses

Leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable in Papua New Guinea (Gazelle Peninsula) and young fruits are eaten cooked in Indonesia (Sulawesi).

Observations

• Climbing, perennial herb with underground tuber.
• Stem 3-6 m long, ribbed, tendrils 2-fid.
• Leaf-blade ovate-cordate in outline, 3-20 cm × 4-22 cm, 3-5-palmatilobed, lobes lanceolate to elliptical; petiole 2-10 cm long.
• Fruit a subglobose berry, 4 cm in diameter, solitary or in groups of 2-5, green with white streaks, turning red at maturity.

The plant is not really cultivated and mainly gathered from the wild where it occurs in humid forest and brushwoods, up to 1800 m altitude.

Selected sources

7, 29, 33, 36, 44, 56.