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Sausage Vine
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Sausage Vine
ative Photo: Thingnam Girija
Common name: Sausage Vine, Holboellia • Hindi: गोमफल Gomphal, Gukhnial • Khasi: Mirang ksa, Soh lyngkait • Nepali: Bagul, Guphala
Botanical name: Stauntonia latifolia    Family: Lardizabalaceae (Coguilera family)
Synonyms: Holboellia latifolia, Holboellia ovatifoliolata, Hoya cavaleriei

Sausage Vine is a vigorous, woody, evergreen climber, native to the Himalayas. Branches are prominently channelled. Leaves are palmately compound, with 3-9 elliptic or oblong-ovate leaflets, 4-10 cm long. In spring, it bears small clusters of very heavily scented, white or purplish, bell-shaped flowers. Flowers are very sweetly scented. They are borne in racemes in leaf axils. Fruit is reddish purple at maturity, irregularly sausage-shaped, 5-7 cm long, up to 4 cm wide. Ripe fruits are eaten fresh. Sausage Vine is found in forests, shrubberies and shady ravined of the Himalayas, from Pakistan to SW China, at altitudes of 1500-4000 m. Flowering: April-May.

Identification credit: Nongthombam Ullysess Photographed in Fambong Lho Wildlife Sanctuary, Sikkim.

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