Merremia emarginata Hallier F.

A perennial herb. Stems prostrate, rooting at the nodes, sparsely hairy and glabrescent, 30-75 cm long, the adult parts sometimes warty. Leaves kidney-shaped to broad-ovate, ½-2½(-3½) by ⅔-2½(-3½) cm, cordate at the base with a broadly rounded sinus and rounded basal lobes, obtuse to broadly rounded or slightly emarginate at the apex, coarsely crenate or entire, glabrous or sparsely appressed pilose; petiole about as long as the blade or shorter, 1/5-2(-3¾) cm long, shortly hairy or minutely verrucose. Flowers axillary, solitary, or in 2-3-flowered cymose clusters; peduncle very short to nearly absent. Pedicels 2-4 mm. Bracts small, ovate to linear, acute, hairy. Flower-buds globular, obtuse. Sepals obovate to orbicular or subquadrate, the outer ones 2½-3 mm long, obtuse with a cucullate and distinctly mucronate top, the inner ones 3-4(-6) mm long, deeply emarginate, all more or less hairy on the back and long ciliate at the margins. Corolla tubular-campanu-late, 5-9 mm long, glabrous, yellow with a paler base, the midpetaline bands distinctly 5-nerved and suffused purple outside; the limb slightly 5-lobed; corolla hairy inside at the hairy base of the filaments. Ovary glabrous. Capsule subglobular, 5-6 mm diam., longitudinally sulcate, glabrous, brownish black or black, crowned by the thickened smooth base of the style, at the base enclosed by the sepals. Seeds 4 or less, ca 2½ mm long, greyish brown, glabrous, dotted.

Restricted to regions with a rather strong to very strong dry season, on rather heavy soils, in fields and open grasslands, along railroads and in waste places, from sea-level to 200 m.

Uses. In the Philippines the leaves and tops in decoction are sometimes used as a diuretic, and in Java for coughs.

Plants can be grown from seeds.