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Indian Chestnut Vine
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Indian Chestnut Vine
ative Photo: Thingnam Rajshree
Common name: Indian Chestnut Vine • Malayalam: vallia-tsjori-valli • Manipuri: ꯃꯣꯟꯖꯥꯝꯍꯩ Monjam-hei • Mizo: Thurpui • Nepali: चरचरे लहरो Charachare Laharo • Tamil: Pirantaikkoti • Telugu: kond draaksha
Botanical name: Tetrastigma leucostaphylum    Family: Vitaceae (Grape family)
Synonyms: Vitis leucostaphylum, Tetrastigma leucostaphylum, Cissus leucostaphyla

Indian Chestnut Vine is a climber which is hairless except the inflorescence. Stems are sometimes boldly tuberculate. Leaves are usually 3-foliolate, sometimes pedately 5-foliolate; common petiole 2-5 inches long. Leaflets are softly leathery, oblong to elliptic-oblong, tapering to each end, sometimes obovate-oblong, always shortly caudate-acuminate and the edges with remote shallow teeth; main nerves 6 to 10 pairs, spreading, slightly winged on the lower surface, length 4.5-6 inches, breadth 1.75-2.75 inches, petiolules 0.4-0.75 inches. Flowers are borne in cymes in leaf axils, hairy, spreading, about 1.5 inches across, on peduncles shorter than themselves. Tendrils are rather short, forked. Flowers are 4-merous, the stigma 4-lobed. Fruit globose-ovoid, as large as a cherry, white when ripe, pulpy, 1- or 2-seeded; the seeds compressed, concave on one surface, rugulose. Indian Chestnut Vine is found in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Nepal, Sri Lanka and SE Asia.

Identification credit: Shrikant Ingalhalikar, Thingnam Rajshree Photographed in Manipur.

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