Aspidopterys wallichii - Drooping Shield-Wing Climber

Drooping Shield-Wing Climber is a twining shrub with round, woody, woolly stem; hairs spreading shortly stalked at the middle, young shoot rusty hairy, internodes upto 15 cm long. Leaf-stalks are 2.0-3.0 cm long, round with silky tomentum, leaf-blade is 9.0-14 x 4.0-8 cm, broadly ovate, entire, tapering to with a tail, base rounded to nearly heart-shaped, herbaceous, hairless above, white silky woolly beneath, lateral neves 7-9, alternate. Bracts are 0.1-0.15 cm long, subulate, green, silky-woolly. Flowers are borne in panicles at branch-ends in drooping branches, oppositely branched flower-cluster-stalk 8.0-10 cm long, woolly. Flower-stalks are 1.0-1.6 cm long; sepals 5, 0.2-0 4 cm long, broadly ovate-oblong, entire, green, white-woolly inside; petals 5, 0.3-0.4 cm, creamy-white, obovate-oblong, entire, rounded, hairless; stamens 8 in a ring of 2 mm diameter. Fruit are 3 winged samaras, pale-yellow 2.5-3.2 x 2.0-2.5 cm, broadly elliptic to round to oblong, woolly, hilum lanceshaped, distinct, up to 1.0 cm long. Drooping Shield-Wing Climber is found in the Himalayas, at altitudes of 250-1100 m. Flowering: July-September.