Riocreuxia torulosa Decne.

A mostly hairy, leafy climber to 3 m or more high. Stem twining, branched, stout in older parts; nodes slightly swollen, with a ring of simple, minute (c.0.6 mm long) whitish-translucent multicellur hairs; internodes 11-60 mm long, 1.5-3(-5) mm diam., mostly pubescent all round, occasionally unifariously or vaguely bifariously pubescent. Leaves herbaceous, spreading; petiole 15-60(-80) mm long, terete, pubescent all around; lamina 30-90(-157) x 17-60(-135) mm, ovate to broadly so, base deeply cordate, apex acuminate, occasionally acute, with a broad subtruncate sinus between the semiorbicular incurved or overlapping basal lobes; usually somewhat adpressed-pubescent on both sides, occasionally more or less glabrous, margin entire, ciliolate. Inflorescence branched, paniculate cymes up to 100(-150) mm long; bracts linear-subulate, 0.7-2 x c.0.2 mm, abaxially mostly pubescent, rarely glabrous; peduncle 1-2 mm diam., variably puberulous, branching at the node or at a distance into up to 3 branches, each branch in turn mostly dichotomously or trichotomously branching once or twice to produce the profusely flowering terminals, pseudoumbels, 6-15-flowered, many flowers opening simultaneously; peduncles 1-3 at each node, 8-90 mm long, subhorizontally orientated (pendant), pubescent, bearing 2-3 distant umbellate fascicles (rarely only one fascicle) of 6-15 flowers, with or without an additional sessile fascicle at the node; pedicels 10-35(40) mm, c.0.2 mm diam., delicately long and slender, mostly pubescent all round, occasionally glabrous all round or minutely pubescent on the upper part and glabrous below. Sepals linear-subulate or lanceolate, acuminate, c.2-4 x 0.5(-0.7) mm at base, abaxially pubescent, occasionally ± glabrous. Corolla (10-)12-18(-20) mm long, straight, glabrous throughout, pale yellow or cream, occasionally more or less tinged with red, purplish or green; tube cylindric, ovoid-inflated at the base, 6-10(-12) mm long x 2-4 mm diam.; lobes linear-attenuate, 5-8(-10) x (0.5-)1 mm wide at base, connivent-erect, connate at tips to form an ellipsoid or subglobose cage-like structure c.5 mm diam., occasionally lobes orange-yellow, glabrous. Corona quite variable in general shape and diam.; ± oblong without subulate processes projecting from the sides to ± octopus-like due to the many processes radiating from the sides, 0.7-1 x 1-2.5 mm, with a conspicuous stipe 0.5-1 mm long, biseriate, glabrous throughout, yellowish with purple in parts; corona and staminal column usually visible through the thin membranous corolla when dry; outer lobes ± narrowly to broadly deltoid with long or short subulate or filiform processes, entire or bifid; 0.3-1.5 mm long x 0.2-0.4 mm wide near base, horizontally radiating high above the base of the stipe, yellowish or purple, adaxially shallow concave or channelled in the basal area; the filiform/subulate processes alternating with five pairs of minute or elongated teeth placed just below or forming one series with them, sometimes the teeth nearly or obsolete; inner lobes rudimentary, reaching to about the base of the anthers, rarely reaching halfway up the anthers (in var. bolusii), dorsiventrally compressed, closely applied to backs of anthers, oblong-obtuse, 0.1-0.2 mm long x 0.1-0.15 mm wide, rarely represented by an upward pointing claw-like process at the base of the anther (e.g. in Codd 7657); guide rails 200-400 ?m long. Pollinarium: pollinia 200-250 x 130-150 ?m, elliptic-oblong with an acute pellucid margin at apex; corpusculum elliptic, 100 x 50 ?m; carpels densely pubescent to completely glabrous. Follicles subparallel or curved, cylindrical, apically tapering, (75-)180-100(-120) mm long x c.3 mm diam. at centre, beaded due to conspicuous constrictions between seeds, glabrous or rarely pubescent; seed dorsiventrally compressed, linear-elliptic, 5-9 x c.2 mm, dark brown or blackish with a c.0.2 mm wide paler margin, concave on one side; coma c.20 mm long.

It is a subtropical plant.

The leaves are cooked as a potherb.