Cyclea laxiflora Miers

Slender climber up to c. 15 m. Stems hispid to gla-brous, herbaceous or slightly woody. Leaves with pubescent, usually hispid, petioles (1.3-)4-6.2 cm, inserted 8-22 mm above the basal margin; lamina triangular-ovate, deltoid-ovate or broadly ovate, apex acutely acuminate with acumen finely mucro-nate, base truncate to slightly emarginate, 9-16 by 5-13.5 cm, margin usually hispid; palmately 9-11-nerved; sparsely hispid to glabrescent above, fairly densely hispid to puberulous or subtomentose below; papyraceous. Male inflorescences axillary, flowers borne in clusters on a lax thyrse 15-55 by 10-20 cm, puberulous. Male flowers with pedicels 1-2 mm; calyx white or cream, turbinate, glabrous or subglabrous, 1-1.5 mm long, lobes 4, broadly tri-angular, about half the length of tube; petals 4, free, 0.5 mm long, glabrous; synandrium c. 1 mm long, shortly exserted. Female inflorescences cauliflo-rous (? always), similar to male, 10-35 by 2.5-10 cm. Female flowers on pedicels c. 0.5 mm; petals and sepals unknown (? early caducous); carpel curved-ellipsoidal, 1 mm long, pilose or glabrous, stigma with 3 filiform, divaricate lobes. Drupes white, obliquely obovate to rotund in outline, 5-8 by 4-6 mm, sparsely pubescent; endocarp bearing 3 rows of papilliform tubercles on both faces.

Secondary and coastal forest, scrub vegetation, hedges and cultivated land, at elevations up to 1,200 metres.

Uses. According to BURKILL a decoction made from the roots is used medicinally for fever, piles, following childbirth and as a vermifuge for children.

Can be grown by seedlings.