Palmeria scandens
English: Anchor Vine; Vine, Anchor.
Genus: 15 species.
Region: tropical Asia, New Guinea Australasia:, Queensland, Indonesia, Sulawesi; Australia, Malesia: 11 spp. in New Guinea, of which 3 may also occur in Queensland and one extends to E. Sulawesi. Three further species have been described from Australia.
Habitat: altitude from near sea level to 1500 m; in lowland, upland and mountain rain forest.
Botany
Woody lianas, vine; dioecious.
Stem: diameters to 20 cm recorded; oak grain in the twigs.
Leaves: opposite; entire; usually bearing stellate hairs; 4.5 to 19 cm long, 2-9 cm wide; petioles ± 1cm long; lateral veins forming fairly definite loops inside the blade margin; sparsely clothed in simple hairs; stellate hairs often visible on the underside of the leaf blade.
Inflorescence: lateral or terminal cymose panicles or pleiochasia.
Male flowers: inflorescence ± 8 cm long, flowers ± 8 mm diameter; tepals hooded, about 4 mm long, outer surface densely clothed in stellate hairs; anthers ± sessile, hairy, about 1 mm long, about 6 associated with each tepal.
Female flowers: inflorescence about 1 to 2 cm long, clothed in matted white hairs; flowers about 3 mm diameter, tepals difficult to distinguish; inner surface of the receptacle densely clothed in bristly hairs with the carpels borne amongst the hairs; carpels 11 to 15 per flower, each carpel about 0.5 mm long; ovules 1 per carpel.
Fruit: fruiting receptacle green on the outer surface but red and hairy on the inner surface, ± 2 cm diameter; carpels black and shiny, about 1 to 9 per receptacle.
Seeds: ± 5 mm diameter; obtuse at one end but pointed at the other; embryo ± 2 mm long; cotyledons divergent, adaxial surfaces not appressed; radicle shorter than the cotyledons.