Group:
1 Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) - I - Dicotyledons
Family:
Cucurbitaceae
Genus:
Solena
Common sinhala name:
Tela-beriya
Habit:
Creeper
Origin:
Native
National conservation status:
LC- Least Concern
Legal status:
Not protected
Similar species:
All vernacular names:
Tela-beriya, Kawudu-Kekiri (S)
Stems long, slender, glabrous; tendrils very long. Leaves: lamina 4—11.5(— 15) x 3.5—7.5(-14) cm, very polymorphic, from broadly ovate lanceolate and coarsely dentate, 3-lobed almost to base with lobes up to eight times longer than broad, entire with lateral lobes spreading or subreflexed, to subtriangular almost always cordate with deep sinuses with many examples appearing auriculate, lobes acute or obtuse, slightly rough-verrucose to subglabrous above, subglabrous beneath; petiole 0.6—0.8 (—1.4) cm long, glabrous to slightly scabrid. Flowers white or creamish. Male flowers shortly pedicellate, up to 20 or more crowded together in pseudo-umbellate corymb c. 2.5 cm long; pedicels up to 1 cm long, slender; calyx-tube c. 2 mm long, lobes 1 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, acute; corolla 5 mm long. Female flowers solitary, axillary; calyx and corolla similar to male; ovary glabrous. Fruit 4 cm long, oblong-ovoid, tapered to a point but not rostrate, obtusely (8—)10-ribbed, smooth, red. Seeds up to 20 in each fruit, usually many fewer, 5 x 3 mm, ovoid, whitish, only slightly compressed. Distr. Throughout tropical Asia. (FOC)
Zehneria umbellata