Ichnocarpus frutescens (L.) W. T. Aiton

A fine, strong fiber obtained from the inner bark is used in making ropes and sacks. The seeds are used for the treatment of rheumatism and the stem and leaves for acute urticaria.

Fver-green woody twiners, branches glabrous or rust; tomentose when young, with milky latex. Leaves elliptic oblong or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, base rounded or acute, 4-10 x 1.5-5 cm, glabrous and dark green above, softly tomentose specially on the midrib, and paler beneath 4-5 pairs of lateral nerves, petiole 2.5-5 mm long, puberulous. Peduncle and pedicel hairy, bracts minute. Flowers c.l cm across. Calyx lobes ovate. obtuse. or subacute. tomentose c. 1 mm long. Corolla tube c. 2.5 mm long, much thickened at the mouth, lobes 1.5 mm long, glabrous mouth of the corolla tube and margin of the lobes with long hairs; lobes of disc erect, slender, capitate, longer than ovary. Ovary subinferior; style short, stigma thick and beaked. Follicle solitary or pairred, 10-15 x 0.5 cm, straight or curved, rusty pubescent when young. Seeds very slender, 1-2 cm long, coma long equalling the seeds

Lianas to 10 m. Branchlets pubescent when young, soon glabrous. Petiole 0.5-1.5 cm; leaf blade 5-11 X 2.5-4.5 cm, pubescent or glabrous abaxially; lateral veins 5-7 pairs. Inflorescences many flowered, 3-8 cm, most flowers in pedunculate heads. Calyx densely pubescent. Corolla tube ca. 2.5 mm; lobes narrowly oblong, ca. 5 mm. Anthers elliptic; disc lobes free, linear, longer than ovary. Ovaries pubescent. Follicles cylindric, 8-15 cm X 4-5 mm, slightly torulose, pubescent. Seeds linear, coma ca. 2.5 cm. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Aug-Dec. 2n = 20.

Tropical Himalaya, India, Burma, Indo-China, Malaya.

Distribution: Indo-Malya, Australia, Sub Himalayan tract, Ravi Eastward, upper Gangetic plain to Bengal and Kashmir.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia]

150-900 m

Fl. Per. August-December.

Sparse woods, brushwoods; 200-900 m.

Apocynum frutescens Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 213. 1753; Echites frutescens Wallich ex Roxburgh; Gardenia volubilis Loureiro; Ichnocarpus ovatifolius A. de Candolle; I. volubilis (Loureiro) Merrill; Micrechites sinensis Markgraf.