Cheiranthera volubilis Benth.

Species

Angiosperms > Apiales > Pittosporaceae > Cheiranthera

Characteristics

Bushy, glabrous, slender twiner forming a dense mound over the surrounding vegetation and resembling dodder. Older shoots red-brown, very warty; new shoots pink-purple, angular, warty. Leaves fascicled at nodes or alternate on twining branches, mostly stem clasping, linear-canaliculate, to 20–22 mm long, mucronate; sessile but thickly wrinkled at the articulate base. Inflorescences solitary or paired irregular, bisexual flowers, terminal and nodding on slender but robust, often twining purple peduncles to 50 mm long, subtended by a leaf. Sepals to 5 mm long and 1 mm wide, very narrow-triangular, margins sinuate towards the apices, incurving with some residual hairs, purple towards the margins, otherwise green. Petals elliptic to obovate, 15–18 mm long, 6–8 mm wide, deep purple-blue, paler on the outer surface, apical margins sinuate. Stamens with cohering anthers grouped facing petal break then free, dehiscing pollen through apical pores; filaments eventually almost the same length as anthers, thin, flared, violet-blue; anthers ± obloid, 4–5 mm long, gold; pollen yellow. Pistil glabrous, fusiform, purple-blue; style subulate, eventually longer than ovary, stigma minute. Fruit almost elliptic rather than cylindrical in outline, 10–12 mm long, c. 5 mm wide, light green with a persisting style, with seeds inserted on chunky funicles around the centre of the chamber. Seeds numerous (5+), very angular reniform, 1–2 mm long, green-brown, very glossy; not arillate.
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Growth form shrub
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Foliage retention evergreen
Sexuality hermaphrodite
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Environment

Open shrubland in lateritic soils and regenerating ‘in areas bulldozed or destroyed by fire’ (Munir 1985).
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Cultivation

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Distribution

Cheiranthera volubilis world distribution map, present in Australia

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:684309-1
WFO ID wfo-0000600134
COL ID TTKW
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Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Cheiranthera volubilis