Willughbeia grandiflora (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Willughbeia grandiflora Dyer ex Hook.f.

Protologue: Apocynaceae

Synonyms

Ancylocladus glaucinus Pierre, Willughbeia glaucina (Pierre) K.Schum.

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: akar jitan (Peninsular).

Distribution

Southern Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia (Kalimantan), Brunei.

Uses

The latex yields a kind of rubber. Because the liana is rather rare, its latex and rubber have never been exploited commercially.

Observations

Large woody liana up to 40 m long with puberulent branchlets, containing latex. Leaves opposite; petiole up to 3 cm long; blade elliptical to ovate, 4-16 cm × 2-9 cm, about 2 times as long as wide, base rounded to obtuse, apex rounded to short acuminate. Inflorescence an axillary cyme, up to 5 cm long with 8-20 flowers; flowers 5-merous, white, creamy or greenish; corolla tubular, tube up to 15 mm long, lobes oblong, up to 2.5 cm long. Fruit a globose berry, only immature ones are known. W. grandiflora only grows in peat swamp forest.

Selected sources

11, 20, 27, 31, 34.