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Tetracera alnifolia Willd.

Species

Angiosperms > Dilleniales > Dilleniaceae > Tetracera

Characteristics

A creeper or climber with several stems. It can be 20 m long. It can also be a shrubby tree 8 m high. The stems can be 10 cm across. Young stems can have flattened hairs. The leaf blade is 15 cm long by 8 cm wide. It is broadly oval. There are many white flowers in branched clusters at the ends of branches. These are in clusters 20 cm long by 10 cm wide. The fruit are 1 cm long by 0.8 cm wide. They are dull red. There are a few seeds. These are 5 mm across and black and shiny.
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Leaf-lamina up to 15 x 8 cm., oblong, oblong-elliptic or broadly elliptic, apex rounded, subacute or emarginate, margin entire or sinuate-dentate, often recurved, very minutely tuberculate-scabrid on both sides or almost smooth, very sparsely appressed-hairy beneath or glabrous, petiole up to 2.5 cm. long, appressed-pubescent or glabrescent, often very narrowly winged.
Seeds few, c. 5 mm. in diam., shining black, very minutely reticulate, compressed globose; aril orange, enclosing the seed, fimbriate.
Woody liane up to 15 m. or more tall, main stems up to 10 cm. in diam., young stems sparsely appressed-hairy or glabrescent.
Flowers white in ample, terminal panicles c. 20 x 10 cm.; branches of inflorescence pubescent or glabrescent.
Sepals c. 7 x 5 mm., rotund-concave, obtuse, sparsely pubescent or glabrescent outside, glabrous within.
Carpels 3, glabrous or nearly so; styles divergent, protruding a short way beyond the anthers.
Fruiting carpels c. 1 x 0.75 cm., dull red, woody, ovoid, apiculate.
Petals c. 8 x 6 mm., broadly obovate, truncate or emarginate.
Large liane, flowers white
Stamens c. 5 mm. long.
Life form perennial
Growth form shrub
Growth support climber
Foliage retention evergreen
Sexuality hermaphrodite
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Environment

A tropical plant. It grows in grassland, savannah and on the edges of forests in West Africa. It also grows in forests along rivers. In Nigeria it has been recorded at 1,440 m above sea level.
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Frequent on the sea coast, in mangrove swamps, and also inland.
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Usage

The young leaves are eaten as a vegetable. The sap from the stem is used as a drink.
Uses food gene source material medicinal
Edible leaves
Therapeutic use Aphrodisiac (unspecified), Gonorrhea (unspecified), Rickets (unspecified)
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Cultivation

Plants can be grown by seeds.
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Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:317353-1
WFO ID wfo-0000409096
COL ID 55LDF
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Tetracera guineensis Tetracera djalonica Tetracera calothyrsa Tetracera obovata Tetracera senegalensis Tetracera rugosa Tetracera scabra Tetracera demeusei Diploter alnifolia Tetracera alnifolia Tetracera podotricha var. glabrescens Tetracera alnifolia var. demeusii Tetracera alnifolia subsp. alnifolia

Lower taxons

Tetracera alnifolia var. podotricha Tetracera alnifolia var. alnifolia
WorldFloraDB 2024