Dioncophyllum thollonii
| Dioncophyllum thollonii | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Dioncophyllum | ||||||||||||
| Baill. | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Dioncophyllum thollonii | ||||||||||||
| Baill. |
Dioncophyllum thollonii is the only plant species of the monotypic genus Dioncophyllum from the family of the hook leaf family(Dioncophyllaceae). This species wasdescribedby Henri Ernest Baillon in 1890.
description
Dioncophyllum thollonii is a liana and reaches a height of thirty to forty meters. Its lanceolate leaves are hairless, entire and shiny, the central rib divides behind the leaf blade into two hooks that serve as a climbing aid.
The five-fold flower is only formed at its extreme end. Numerous seed carriers are held in the fruit with five spreading flaps. The shield-shaped seeds are up to ten centimeters in size and are spread by the wind.
distribution
This plant species comes from the rainforests of West Africa , it has been proven for Gabon , the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo . As a tropical liana, it needs warmth and high humidity.
use
Ethnobotany
In their countries of origin, the leaves of the plant are used as a folk medicine against old age , as an aphrodisiac and against Veisalgia . Fresh root pulp is used to treat leprosy stains .
etymology
The generic name, which also gave the family its name, comes from the Greek ( di = two, onco = claw, phyllum = leaf) and refers to the two hooks on the leaves. The species name honors Thollon, who discovered the plant in 1888.
literature
- Airy Shaw: On the Dioncophyllaceae , a remarkable new family of flowering plants. Kew Bulletin 327-347, 1951
- Messer, KS: Isolation, structure elucidation and contributions to the synthesis of natural substances from tropical medicinal plants and the establishment of chiral on-line analysis. Diss. University of Würzburg, 2002. Full text online