Cyclea laxiflora (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Cyclea laxiflora Miers

Protologue: Contr. bot. 3: 241 (1871).

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: akar gasing bukit, akar rempenang, metimun tikus (Peninsular).

Distribution

Thailand (peninsular), Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Bangka and the Anambas Islands.

Uses

A decoction made of the roots is used in local medicine in Peninsular Malaysia against fever and piles, after childbirth, as a vermifuge for children and applied externally to the nostrils in caries of the nasal bones.

Observations

• A slender herbaceous or slightly woody climber up to 15 m long, stem hispid to glabrous.
• Leaves triangular-ovate, deltoid-ovate or broadly ovate, up to 16 cm long, hairy below, petiole up to 6 cm long, usually hispid.
• Male flowers with glabrous or subglabrous calyx and free petals, female flowers in lax clusters, with glabrous or subglabrous carpels.
• Fruit glabrous.

C. laxiflora occurs in secondary and coastal forest, scrub vegetation, hedges and cultivated land, up to 1200 m altitude.

Selected sources

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240. Vol. 2 (I- Z) pp. 1241-2444.
• Forman, L.L. 1986. Menispermaceae. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. & de Wilde, W.J.J.O. (General editors): Flora Malesiana. Series 1, Vol. 10. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands. pp. 157-253.
• Forman, L.L., 1988. A synopsis of Thai Menispermaceae. Kew Bulletin 43(2): 369-407.
• Forman, L.L., 1991. Menispermaceae. In: Smitinand, T. & Larsen, K. (Editors): Flora of Thailand. Vol. 5(3). The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand. pp. 325-331.

Main genus page

• Cyclea (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• R.H.M.J. Lemmens & S.F.A.J. Horsten