Psychotria sarmentosa Blume

Habit: Climber

Climbing shrubs; branchlets slender, glabrous with adventitious roots. Leaves opposite, 5-11 x 1.5-4 cm, ovate,obovate, ovate-oblong, elliptic-lanceolate or narrow ovate, acuminate or acute at apex, slightly recurved at margin, acute, acuminate or obtuse at base, thin coriaceous, glabrous above, glabrous or pubescent beneath, pale green to brown when dry; midrib slender, channelled above, more or less pubescent beneath; lateral nerves 8-10 on either side, very slender, subopposite, arcuate, without domatia; nervules inconspicuous; petioles 0.5-2 cm, glabrous or pubescent; stipules deciduous, 2-4 x 2-4 mm, ovate or acuminate at apex, with a short projection, connate at base, membranous, glabrous or puberulous above, villous at base, beneath. Inflorescence terminal panicle, umbellate or corymbose cymes, 4-6 x 2-8 cm; branches trichotomous or 4-5 in a whorl, puberulous or glabrous; branchlets short trichotomous, puberulous or rarely glabrous; peduncles 2-2.5 cm long, puberulous or glabrous; bracts deciduous, leafy, 8-30 x 2-10 mm, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acuminate at both ends, short petioled, green, glabrous; nerves and nervules inconspicuous; bracteoles deciduous, 2-5 mm long, ovate-oblong, ovate, subulate or long acuminate at apex, entire or shortly toothed, pubescent or puberulous above, glabrous or pubescent beneath. Flowers pedicellate, heterostylous, 4-5 mm, short tubular or infundibuliform, puberulous; pedicels 1-2 mm long, puberulous. Hypanthium ± 0.5 mm long, obovoid, smooth, puberulous. Calyx 0.5-0.7 x 1-1.3 mm, copular, puberulous or glabrous, entire or 5-toothed, teeth short, triangular, acute, puberulous or glabrous. Corolla tube 2-3 mm long, thin, puberulous or glabrous above, densely villous at throat within; lobes 5, 1-2 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, slightly inflexed and puberulous above. Stamens 5, exserted or inserted; filaments 0.2-0.5 mm in long styled flowers or 1-2 mm long in short styled ones, adnate at or below throat; anthers 0.5-1 mm long, oblong, dorsally convex. Ovary 0.5-1 mm long, 2 or 3 chambered; style 3-3.5 mm or 1-2.5 mm long, thin, filiform, glabrous; stigma 2-lobed, ± 0.5 mm long, ovate or narrow elliptic, obtuse or truncate at apex, thin at margin, papillose. Fruits ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, crowned with persistent calyx lobes and disc, 8-10 ridged and furrowed, warty, puberulous or glabrous, waxy white; stalks 3-5 mm long, puberulous or glabrous; pyrenes 2, very rarely 3, ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, plano-convex, obtuse, retuse or acute at apex, cuneate at base, dorsally 3-4 ridged and furrowed, ventrally flat, channelled or not, dorsally thick, ventrally thin walled; seeds 3-4 x 2-3 mm, ellipsoid-oblong or ovoid-oblong, obtuse or truncate at apex, cuneate at base, plano-convex, dorsally 3-4 ridged and furrowed, ventrally flat, channelled or not, albumen ruminate.

Kerala: Alapuzha, Kollam Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore