Liana to at least 7 cm in diameter, the bark smooth, green on the younger branches; stem with 4 phloem arms in cross section, the pith large; branchlets terete to subterete, puberulous with short-gland-tipped trichomes to glabrate, green and smooth when fresh, usually dark when dry, the nodes without inter-petiolar glands or pseudostipules, usually conspicuously thickened laterally with a raised ridge connecting opposite petioles. Leaves 2-foliolate, sometimes with a tendril; the leaflets ovate to elliptic, acuminate to obtuse, truncate to asymmetrically subcordate, 7.2-21 cm long and 3.3-15.5 cm wide, chartaceous, secondary veins 5-8 on a side, the surface microscopically roughened, sometimes indistinctly and sparsely puberulous along veins, plate-shaped glands irregularly scattered along the midvein beneath, glossy green when fresh, drying grayish green to olive with main veins brownish to tan beneath; tendril usually trifid, 4-23 cm long to branching, the 3 arms 0.2-2.4 cm long; petiolules and petiole often twisted slightly, glabrous to subpuberulous, the petiolules 3.0-6.6 cm long, the petiole 2.9-7.5 cm long. Inflorescence an axillary raceme of 1-21 flowers, the branches slightly puberulous. Flowers without noticeable odor, calyx tubular-campanulate, 2-4-lipped, 1.1-2.1 cm long and 0.7-1.2 cm wide, inconspicuously puberulous with simple, glandular, or rarely thick-stellate trichomes and/or lepidote scales, without glands; corolla deep wine-colored; campanulate above a narrowed 1.7-2.4-cm-long and 0.4-0.6-cm-wide base, 4.1-6.0 cm long and 0.8-2.1 cm wide at the mouth, the tube 3.5-5 cm long, the lobes 0.6-1.5 cm long; more or less glabrous to glandular-lepidote on the tube outside, simple-puberulous at the base and margin of the lobes outside, stalked-lepidote in the floor of the tube within, the lobes papillate-lepidote inside, pubescent at the level of stamen insertion with short, 1-3-celled, gland-tipped trichomes; stamens didyna-mous, the anther thecae divaricate, 2.5-3 mm long, the longer filaments 1.5-1.7 cm long, the shorter filaments 1.1-1.4 cm long, the filaments inserted 14-18 mm from the base of the corolla tube, the staminode 1-2 mm long, inserted 10-11 mm from base of tube; pistil 3.5-3.7 cm long, the ovary linear, 4 mm long and 1.5 mm wide, sparsely lepidote or simple-puberulous, the ovules (2-)4-seriate in each locule; disc annular-pulvinate, 1.5 mm long and 4-S mm wide. Capsule linear, acute, strongly flattened, 55-130 cm long and 1.2-1.8 cm wide, the surface even, finely ridged under a lens, glabrous to inconspicuously subpuberu-lous, especially near the margins; seeds very thin, 0.9-1.8 cm long and 3.0-5.4 cm wide, the wings symmetrical, blunt-ended, membranaceous but brownish, lighter at the tips, poorly demarcated from the seed body.
Home