Isotrema ovatifolium - Ovate-Leaf Pipevine

Ovate-Leaf Pipevine is a climbing shrub with stems round, striped, densely yellow-brown hairy, with elongate internodes. Flowers are borne singly in axils of leafy shoots. Flower-stalks are drooping, 3-6 cm, grayish hairy; bractlets ovate, 3-5 × 3-4 mm, inserted on basal 1/2 of flower-cluster-stalk. Calyx is purple-red; tube sharply curved, below hairy to hairless. Basal portion of the tube is 10-15 x 7-10 mm; limb somewhat cylindric, 1.5-2.5 x 1-1.5 cm, 3-lobed; lobes slightly unequal, somewhat rounded or lower lobe nearly flat. Anthers are oblong, about 2 mm. Gynostemium 3-lobed. Leaf-stalks are 3-5 cm, yellow-brown hairy; leaf blade ovate, 5-13 x 4-8 cm, leathery, below densely gray or yellow-brown hairy, above densely gray or yellow-brown hairy when young, becoming hairless, veins palmate, 3-5 pairs from base, base deeply heart-shaped, sinus 5-10 × about 0.5 cm, tip pointed. Capsules are cylindric, wavy 6-angled, about 6 x 2 cm. Seeds are narrowly ovoid, about 6 x 4 mm. Ovate-Leaf Pipevine is found in thickets and forests in South-Central China, at altitudes of 1000-2000 m. We found it growing in UKhrul, Manipur. Flowering April-June.