Iodes philippinensis Merr.

Woody climber, up to 6 m. Branchlets slender, striate, soft villous by ferrugineous fine rather short hairs as are the petioles; tendrils slender, up to 15 cm. Leaves ovate-elliptic to-oblong, apex short acuminate, the midrib hardly projected beyond the lamina, base rounded or mostly slightly cordate, thin chartaceous, upper surface finally glabrous except the midrib, undersurface all over soft tomentose, more densely so on midrib and nerves, the hairs being of two markedly different types, i.e. stoutish substrigose ± appressed, and much finer, soft and ± erect ones, the latter sometimes rather scarce, the space between the veinlets hairless, (3-)5-9 by 2.5-5(-7) cm, midrib and 4-6 pairs of ascendent and ± looping nerves plain above, ± strongly raised beneath, less so the veins, reticulation of veinlets not very distinct; petiole 0.6-1 (-1.5) cm. ♂ Inflorescences: Panicle composed of several cymes, rather lax and relatively few-flowered, 2-4(-5) cm incl the long peduncle, covered with ± crisped and appressed rusty substrigose hairs. Pedicels slender, 1-2 mm, the end glabrous and a little dilated when the flower is gone. Calyx cup-shaped, 1.5 mm, acutely 5-lobed halfway. Petals subglobose in bud, rapidly accrescent to 6-7(-8) mm at full anthesis, united into a narrow tube for the lower ⅔, free at the 5 lobes, the latter acuminate, narrow, tip indexed in bud stage, ultimately reflexed or spreading, hairy outside and at the mouth inside, white or cream. Stamens 5, inserted at the end of the tube, alternating with the lobes; filaments flattened, very short; anther-sacs narrowly sub-ovate-oblong, not crenulate, 0.8-1 mm. Rudiment of ovary cylindric, glabrous, c. 1.5 mm. ♀ Inflorescences 3-5 (rarely-12)-flowered, 2-3 cm incl. the peduncle, hairy as are the ♂ ones. Pedicel slender, 3(-4) mm, not swollen distally. Calyx cup-shaped, 1.8 mm, 5-lobed halfway or a little more. Petals (4-)5, narrow-oblong, connate at the base, white or cream, thin, finally reflexed, glabrous inside, 2.5-3 by 0.6-0.8 mm. Staminodes 0. Ovary cylindric, all over clad with stiff forward directed hairs, 2 mm; stigma thick, bilobed, glabrous. Drupe obliquely oblongoid-ellipsoid, laterally compressed and rather sharply crested, ± obtuse at both ends, red to orange, 1.2-1.5 by 0.8-1.2 by 0.8-1 cm, densely rusty hairy; endocarp coarsely reticulate-lacunose; pedicels stoutish, 2-5 mm, a little swollen distally. Sepals and petals persistent on the fruit for a long time.

Edge of forests or thickets, also secondary growths, in the lowland up to 200 m, but ascending in the foothills of Mt Kinabalu up to 1525 m, often near rivers.