Cayratia geniculata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Cayratia geniculata (Blume) Gagnep.

Family: Vitaceae

Synonyms

Cissus geniculata Blume, C. rhodocarpa (Blume) Gagnep. , Vitis geniculata (Blume) Miq.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: lakum (Malay), areuy ki barera (Sundanese), lunda (Javanese).

Distribution

Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines.

Uses

In Indonesia the stems, twisted together, are used as rough, strong rope. In Sumatra the fruit is boiled with vegetables to give them a slightly sour taste.

Observations

A perennial liana, 2-10 m long; tendrils 1-3-times forked, sometimes ending in an adhesive disk. Leaves alternate, digitately 3-foliolate; leaflets 5-17 cm × 2.5-10 cm, margin dentate-crenate-serrate, glabrous or pubescent. Inflorescence an axillary, pendulous, leaf-opposed or seemingly terminal corymbiform cyme, glabrous or pubescent; peduncle long, articulate, furcate, upcurved at the apex, usually geniculate; flowers bisexual, 4-merous; calyx subtruncate; petals free, patent, or reflexed, 3-3.5 mm long, green with a pale base, glabrous on the back; disk cupular, adnate to the base of the ovary, thin-margined, bright yellow; ovary 2-celled, cells 2-ovuled, style terete, stigma small. Fruit a transversely ellipsoid berry, 15-26 mm in diameter, pale red, 2-4-seeded. Seed with a linear chalaza on the back and 1-2 deep cavities on the ventral side; albumen U or T-shaped on transverse section. C. geniculata occurs in brushwood and young forest up to 1500 m altitude. In Java it flowers throughout the year. C. japonica (Thunb.) Gagnep. is used in South-East Asia as a medicinal plant and for tying.

Selected sources

6, 71, 191.

Authors

M. Brink, P.C.M. Jansen & C.H. Bosch