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Quisqualis indica

(Drunken Sailor Quisqualis Indica)

Overview

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Vigorous vining shrub from S.E. Asia. The bitter fruits may cause illness and unconsciousness but nevertheless are sometimes taken medicinally as a vermifuge. The leaf juice is sometimes used to treat boils and ulcers.

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Chinese:

Shi Jun Zi

Common Names in English:

Burma Creeper, Chinese Honeysuckle, Drunken Sailor Quisqualis Indica, Quisqualis, Rangoon Creeper, Rangoon-Creeper

Common Names in Portuguese:

Arbusto-Milagroso

Common Names in Spanish:

Quiscual

Description

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Family Combretaceae

Trees , shrubs , or woody lianas, evergreen or deciduous, rarely subherbaceous. Indumentum of simple hairs , glandular hairs, or multicellular hairs secreting calcium oxalate and forming scales or present beneath cuticle and making leaf blade surface verruculose and sometimes translucent dotted . Leaves opposite, subopposite, whorled , spiraled, or alternate, usually petiolate , estipulate; petiole sometimes persistent and thornlike; leaf blade simple, margin entire or subentire , sometimes toothed , glands often present between crenations of proximal margin and at base or on petiole. Inflorescences terminal , axillary , or extra-axillary , spikes, branched spikes, racemes , panicles, or sometimes capitula, bracteate . Flowers usually regular, rarely slightly zygomorphic, usually bisexual , sometimes bisexual and male flowers present in same inflorescence. Receptacle surrounding and adnate to ovary and extended into a short or long calyx tube dilated distally (together termed "calyx tube" in this treatment) ; lobes 4 or 5(-8), valvate in bud, persistent or deciduous, sometimes almost absent. Petals 4 or 5, inserted near mouth of calyx tube, imbricate or valvate in bud, conspicuous or not, or absent. Stamens usually 2 × as many as calyx lobes in 2 series, inserted inside distal part of calyx tube, included in or exserted from calyx tube; filaments incurved in bud; anthers dorsifixed , usually versatile, dehiscing longitudinally. Disk usually present, intrastaminal , hairy or glabrous . Ovary inferior, 1-loculed; ovules 2(-6), pendulous, anatropous , usually only 1 developing; style 1, simple, usually free from distal part of calyx tube, subulate to filiform ; stigma capitate or inconspicuous. Fruit a pseudocarp, very variable in shape and size, fleshy or dry, 1-seeded, usually indehiscent, often longitudinally 2-5-winged, -ridged, or -angled; endocarp not or at least partly sclerenchymatous . Cotyledons convolute, folded, or twisted. Endosperm absent.

About 20 genera and ca. 500 species: widespread in tropics and subtropics; six genera and 20 species (one endemic) in China.

Tan et al. (J. Plant. Res. 115: 475-481. 2002) inferred a phylogeny of the Chinese genera from nuclear , plastid, and spacer sequences based on 16 species in 19 samples . The mangrove genera Lumnitzera and Laguncularia Gaertner were placed as sister taxa in a clade sister to the other genera in China plus Conocarpus Linnaeus. The latter group comprised two clades: one with Conocarpus sister to an unresolved grouping of Terminalia and Anogeissus; the other with Getonia sister to Quisqualis and Combretum.[1]

Genus Quisqualis

Lianas woody. Leaves opposite or subopposite; petiole persistent and thornlike; leaf blade ± elliptic , glabrous or hairy . Inflorescences terminal or axillary , simple or sometimes compound spikes. Calyx tube (1.7-) 5-9 cm, ± uniformly narrowly tubular except funnelform at apex, deciduous above ovary, hairy or subglabrous; lobes 5, deltoid or triangular-lanceolate, small, apex sometimes cuspidate . Petals 5, white or red, larger (often much more so) than calyx lobes. Stamens 10, not or scarcely exserted from calyx tube. Style partly adnate to inside of calyx tube (in Chinese species). Fruit fusiform to subglobose or ovoid , longitudinally 5-ridged or -winged, dry, leathery.

About 17 species: tropical Africa, tropical Asia; two species in China.

Jongkind (Bull . Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat., B , Adansonia 12: 275-280. 1991) proposed uniting Quisqualis with Combretum on the grounds that the two genera cannot be separated morphologically in a consistent manner. Tan et al. (loc. cit. , see note under family heading ) found Quisqualis and Combretum to be monophyletic sister taxa, but noted that their sampling (two species of each genus in five samples ) was insufficient to examine problems of generic circumscription.[2]

Physical Description

Species Quisqualis indica

Lianas to 8 m tall. Branchlets brownish yellow pubescent . Petiole 5-9 mm, without an inflated joint near base , densely brown pilose when young; leaf blade mostly oblong-elliptic or elliptic , 5-18 × 2.5-7 cm, abaxially sometimes brown pilose, adaxially glabrous except slightly brown pilose on midvein , finely white verruculose , rarely tomentose on both surfaces, base obtuse, apex acuminate to shortly caudate ; lateral veins in 7 or 8 pairs. Inflorescences lax ; bracts deciduous, filiform-linear to ovate , 3-12 mm, brown pilose. Flowers fragrant. Calyx tube 5-9 cm, yellow pilose; lobes deltoid, 2-3 mm, apex acute or shortly acuminate but not cuspidate . Petals opening white, later turning yellowish abaxially and reddish adaxially, obovate to oblanceolate , 10-24 × 4-10 mm, apex rounded to obtuse . Fruit red when young, greenish black or brown when ripe , fusiform or narrowly ovoid , sharply 5-ridged, 2.7-4 × 1.2-2.3 cm, glabrous, apex mucronate . Fl. Mar-Nov, fr. Jun-Nov. [source]

Quisqualis indica is variable in its indumentum and in the shape and size of its bracts. Most Chinese specimens with bracts still attached have linear-lanceolate to filiform-linear bracts. In this respect, these plants correspond with Q. indica var. villosa, as defined by Lecompte (in Aubréville, Fl. Cambodge Laos Vietnam 10: 22-31. 1969), who described var. indica as having ovate to lanceolate bracts. In FRPS (53(1) : 17. 1984), var. villosa was said to have ovate leaf blades, tomentose on both surfaces (vs. elliptic or ovate, abaxially sometimes brown pilose, and adaxially glabrous in var. indica). [source]

Four specimens from Guangdong (Deqing, Guangzhou, Nanhai, and Xingning), at least three of which are from cultivated plants , have a shorter calyx tube, 3-5 cm, and smaller petals, 8-9 × 3-4.5 mm, than is normal for Quisqualis indica. It is possible that these belong to Q. indica var. pierrei (Gagnepain) O. Lecompte (Q. pierrei Gagnepain), described from S Vietnam, which differs from var. indica in having smaller flowers of about these dimensions and, strikingly, in having fruit with 5 broad, papery wings 1-1.5 cm wide. However, because the specimens lack fruit, this determination is only tentative. [source]

Habit: Vine

Flowers: Bloom Period: April, May, September. • Flower Color: pink, red

Size/Age/Growth

Size: over 40' tall.

Habitat

Rain forests , low woods , thickets, hedges , mountains, dry hillsides, riversides , roadsides, wasteland, also cultivated; below 1500 m (Ref. 103214).

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Culture: Space 20-30' apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 5.1 • Maximum pH: 6.5

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Sun to Partial Shade.

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Combretum indicum (L.) Jongkind
  2. Combretum indicum (Linnaeus) Jongkind
  3. Kleinia quadricolor Crantz
  4. Mekistus sinensis Loureiro Ex B. A. Gomes
  5. Ourouparia enormis Yamamoto
  6. Q. grandiflora Miquel
  7. Q. indica var. oxypetala Kurz
  8. Q. indica var. villosa (Roxburgh) C. B. Clarke
  9. Q. longiflora C. Presl
  10. Q. loureiroi G. Don
  11. Q. obovata Schumacher & Thon Ning
  12. Q. pubescens N. L. Burman
  13. Q. sinensis Lindley
  14. Q. spinosa Blanco
  15. Q. villosa Roxburgh.
  16. Quisqualis glabra N. L. Burman

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Sp. pl. ed. 2, 1:556. 1762

Name verified on 31-Aug-1995 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 09-Feb-2007

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Quisqualis

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 31 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

Q. bibracteata · Q. caudata · Q. conferta · Q. densiflora · Q. ebracteata · Q. exannulata · Q. falcata · Q. glabra · Q. grandiflora · Q. hensii · Q. indica (Drunken Sailor Quisqualis Indica) · Q. indica double-flowered (Rangoon Creeper) · Q. latialata · Q. littorea · Q. longiflora · Q. loureiri · Q. madagascariensis · Q. malabarica · Q. mussaendiflora · Q. obovata · Q. parviflora · Q. parvifolia · Q. pellegriniana · Q. pierrei · Q. prostrata · Q. pubescens · Q. sinensis · Q. spinosa · Q. sulcata · Q. thorelii · Q. villosa

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 28, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Jie Chen & Nicholas J. Turland "Combretaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 309. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Quisqualis". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 309, 315. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/1/2009