Artabotrys hexapetalus (L. f.) Bhandari

Climbing shrub

Artabotrys species are woody scandent climbing shrubs, with distinct unique hook-like peduncles. Bark grayish brown, fissured. Leaves simple, alternate, exstipulate, shining glabrous above, glaucous beneath. Flowers bisexual, fragrant, recurved hooked leaf opposed, solitary or in fascicles, Sepals 3, valvate, base connate, Petals 6 or 9, valvate, in two whorls, much larger than the sepals, outer whorl fleshy, thinner concave base, inner whorl very small. Stamens many, ovoid, oblong, cuneate, connectives on the flat top. Carpels 4 to many, 2 ovules per carpel, erect, style oblong or columnar, stigma ovoid or clavate. Ripe carpels or fruit apocarpous many, subsessile, berried and ovoid. Seeds 2 rarely 1 per monocarp, aril absent.

Artabotrys species flowers are complete, bisexual, i.e., with functional male (androecium) and female (gynoecium), including stamens, carpels and ovary. Pollination is entomophilous i.e., by insects. Flowering/Fruiting: April-July/September-February.

Seeds dispersed by barochory i.e., gravitational dispersal, zoochory i.e., dispersal by birds or animals, anthropochory i.e., dispersal by humans.

Scandent bushy shrub, about 5-8 m long. Bark dark brown, thin, branchlets puberulous, glabrescent or glabrous when mature. Leaves simple, alternate, lanceolate-elliptic to oblong, 10-24 x 3-7 cm across, base obtuse to acute, margin entire, apex acute or shallow acuminate, chartaceous, dark green, shining, glabrous above, paler subglabrous beneath, lateral veins 10-16 on either side of the midrib, impressed above, prominent on the veins and more prominent on the midrib beneath, reticulate veinlets fine and close, petiole stout, about 0.5 cm long. Inflorescence solitary or in pairs, on a hooked peduncle at the apex and middle, peduncle somewhat compressed and drooping. Flowers bisexual, fragrant, about 2.5-3 cm across, on a hooked peduncle, pedicels glabrous, about 10-15 mm long. Sepals 3, ovate or somewhat triangular, apex acute, connate at the base, greenish outside or yellowish green inside, about 5-8 x 6 mm across. Petals 6 in 2 rows, rarely 9, ovate-lanceolate, base clawed saccate coherent, apex obtuse, greenish yellow when young and yellow when mature, densely minutely pubescent, outer petals about 2-2.5 x 0.5-1.3 cm across, inner petals, lanceolate, base clawed saccate about 1.5-0.8 cm across. Stamens many, oblong, about 1.5 mm long, connectives peltate, apically triangular. Carpels few, sickle shaped, pubescent or glabrous, about 1.5-2 mm long, style curved, stigma blunt. Ripe carpels, 6-14, narrowly obovoid or ovoid in fruit, glabrous, about 2.5-4 cm across, yellow when ripe, stalk short, Seeds 1-2, oval-oblong, brown, deeply grooved on one side.

Susceptible to insect pests and moulds.

Notes: Western Ghats, Cultivated, Native of Tropical Asia

Forested areas

Forests and cultivated.

Cultivated for its fragrant flowers, which contain essential oils, used in perfumes. Leaf decoction given for curing cholera in Malaysia. Fruit and bark used to treat fever, diarrhoea, dysentery, cuts, sprains, ulcers, tumours and asthma.