Thunbergia lutea - Sikkim Clock Vine

Sikkim Clock Vine is a creeper up to 5 m or longer, climbing. Stems are hairless except for a circle of trichomes on nodes. Leaf-stalks are 5-7.5 cm, hairless. Leaves are ovate to lanceshaped-ovate, 4-13 x 2-6 cm, hairless below, pubescent or setose above, base rounded to broadly wedge-shaped and flat onto the stalk. Margins are obscurely toothed to sometimes irregularly denticulate, tip tapering. Flowers are borne in leaf axilsm solitary. Bracteoles are elliptic, 2.1-2.4 x 1.5-1.7 cm, hairless below, gland-tipped hairy aboe, palmately 7-veined. Calyx is minute, 10-toothed. Flowers are pinkish or white; tube basally cylindric for about 7 mm, throat about 3.5 cm, petals circular, about 1.2 cm in diameter, equal. Staminal filaments are hairless. about 1 cm. Ovary is hairless, style about 2.5 cm, hairless, stigma funnel-shaped, 2-cleft. Capsule is hairless, basal part about 1 x 1.8 cm, beak about 1.8 cm. Seeds are kideny-shaped, about 8 x 5 mm. Sikkim Clock Vine is found in Eastern Himalayas, from Nepal to Sikkim, at altitudes of 1800-2300 m. Flowering: August-December.