Riocreuxia flanaganii Schltr.

A sparsely hairy, leafy climber, 1 m or more high. Stem produced annually, twining, branching, stout in older parts; nodes with a distinct ring of simple, whitish/brownish-translucent multicellur hairs; internodes 15-110 mm long, 1.5-3 mm diam., uni-or bifariously pubescent. Leaves herbaceous, spreading; petiole 8-40 mm long, terete, pubescent all round or only along rims of adaxial channel; lamina 20-75 x 12-55 mm, broadly or elongated ovate, base deeply cordate, apex acuminate; with a broad subtruncate sinus between the semiorbicular incurved or overlapping basal lobes; sparsely and rather minutely pubescent on both sides to more or less glabrescent, lower surface sometimes more densely pubescent, margin entire, ciliolate. Inflorescence of short compact sessile, subsessile or rarely shortly pedunculate umbellate cymes up to 15 (-20) mm long; bracts subulate, c.2-3 mm long, glabrous; peduncle 0-3(-15) mm long, c.1 mm diam., puberulous or glabrous, with 1(-2) rather dense ± terminal clusters of flowers, 5-15-flowered; pedicels 2-6 mm, c.0.3 mm diam., sparsely pubescent or glabrous. Sepals linear-subulate, 2-3 x 0.3-0.5 mm at base, glabrous. Corolla 7-12 mm long, straight, glabrous throughout; tube subcylindric, ± contracted at mouth, 3-5 mm long x 2-4(-5) mm diam.; exterior whitish or pale yellow interior probably similarly coloured: lobes linear or linear-filiform, 4-6 x 0.3-0.5 mm wide at base, arching to connate tips to form an ellipsoid or subglobose cage-like structure 4-5 mm diam., pale yellowish or somewhat orange at base and purple brown much of the length above. Corona ± subglobose, c.1.5 x 1.5 mm, subsessile or shortly stipitate, biseriate, yellow, glabrous throughout; outer lobes deeply divided with margins of notch somewhat thickened and recurved to give a V-shape at centre with ‘teeth’/lobules ± face-to-face, c.0.4 mm wide x 0.3 mm deep (in var. flanaganii) or outer lobes narrowly triangular or ± oblong, upcurving-erect as high as or higher than stylar head with apex obtuse or bifid, c.1.2 x 0.5 mm broad at base (in var. alexandrina); inner lobes dorsiventrally compressed, subulate or linear, c.0.8-1 x c.0.2-0.5 mm, incumbent on the backs of anthers and much or slightly exceeding them, with apices crossing each other or ± connivent; guide rails, c.200 ?m long. Pollinarium: pollinia c. 290-400 x 160 ?m, elliptic-oblong with an acute pellucid margin at apex; corpusculum elliptic, 140 x 60 ?m. Carpels glabrous. Follicles paired, acutely divergent, cylindrical, apically tapering, c.115 x 3 mm diam. at centre, only slightly beaded; seed dorsiventrally compressed, linear-oblong, c.10 x c.2 mm, dark brown or blackish with a paler margin, concave on one side; coma c.20 mm long.