Thwaites Zehneria is a slender climbing herb with
annual stems arising from a perennial rootstock. It is named for George
Henry Kendrick Thwaites (1812-1882), English botanist. Leaves are
variable, ovate to triangular in outline, sometimes more or less
3-lobed, finely rough above and on the veins below; margin entire or
with a few small teeth. Flowers arise solitary, unisexual on the same
plant, white fading to cream. Female flowers are solitary on slender
7-40 mm. long flower-stalks; ovary spindle-shaped, sometimes slightly
collared at the base, 3.5-16 mm. long, 0.51.5 mm across;
receptacle-tube cylindrical to broadly bell-shaped, 12.5 mm long;
lobes subulate, 0.5-1.5 mm long; petals 2-6 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm broad,
united at very base. Male flowers are 1-3, in leaf-axils, or at nodes
on 3-10 cm. long leafless shoots with shortened internodes and then
appearing racemose; flower-stalks slender, 4.5-15 mm. long;
receptacle-tube bell-shaped, 1.52 mm. long; lobes triangular-subulate,
0.30.8 mm. long. Petals are white, becoming cream when older, 24 mm.
long, 12 mm. broad, united at the base; stamens 3, nearly stalkless.
Fruits are 1.5-4.5 cm long, spindle-shaped, red when ripe. Thwaites
Zehneria is found in Africa, India and Sri Lanka.
Identification credit: P.S. Sivaprasad
Photographed in Vagavurrai (enroute Munnar), Kerala.
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The flower labeled Thwaites Zehneria is ...