Identification Characteristics:
High-climbing vine; young branches with raised edges, bark peeling when mature. Leaves clustered on short shoots, ovate, obovate, or nearly rhomboid, 10–15 x 5–9 cm, glabrous on both surfaces, apex acuminate, base obtuse or slightly decurrent; lateral veins 6–8 pairs, parallel and often forked near the margin; petiole up to 5 cm long, without hairs. Bud scales 3–4, colored, ovate, 1.5 cm high, clustered in a rosette, enclosing the base of the branchlets. Flowers solitary or in pairs in the axils of the bud scales; flower stalk thread-like, 5–6 cm long, without hairs; flower buds spherical. Tepals 8 (undifferentiated into sepals and petals), red, ovate to nearly circular, the outer ones smaller than the inner ones. In male flowers, stamens clustered into a spherical mass; anthers obovate, nearly sessile; anthers attached laterally, attached to a broad and rounded connective at the apex. Fruit with a peduncle up to 13 cm long; carpels (mature carpels) fleshy, scattered on a fleshy receptacle (developed from the floral base), forming a “spike” up to 12 cm long. Seeds 2, ovate, 4 mm long.
Biology and Ecology:
Grows scattered along forest edges, in humid locations, at an altitude of approximately 1500 m.
Distribution:
- In Vietnam: Recently found in Lào Cai (Sapa).
- Global: Unknown.
Value:
Likely endemic to Vietnam.
Conservation Status:
The distribution area is very narrow, only found in Sapa (Lào Cai), with very few individuals observed.
Assessment:
EN B1+2b,c.
Conservation Measures:
Prevent the felling of remaining mature trees at the distribution site. Collect seedlings for planting in botanical gardens.