Telosma cordata (N. L. Burman) Merr.

The flowers are very fragrant and yield perfumed oil. They are used in cooking and medicinally to treat conjunctivitis.

Material from outside China varies greatly in corolla size and shape and, to a lesser extent, in leaf shape. It is not clear whether a species complex or a single polymorphic species, possibly including the two following species, is involved.

Twining shurb, juice milky, branches glabrous or pubescent. Leaves 5-10.5 cm long, ovate, glabrous or puberulous specially on the nerves, a few glands at the base of the midrib above, base cordate, tip acuminate. Petiole 1.2-3.8 cm long. Flowers in umbellate cymes, arising singly at nodes. Peduncle c. 6.5 cm long. Pedicels 1.3 cm long, pubescent. Bract c. 3.5 cm long, linear, caducous. Calyx lobes c. 5 mm long, hairy outside, alternating with small solitary glands. Corolla pale yellow, c. 1.8 cm long, salver-shaped, tube swollen at the base, lobes about twice as long as the tube, linear-oblong, glabrous, twisted in bud. Corona in 1 series, of erect membranous processes arising from the base and adnate to the staminal column. Filaments united, anthers with long membranous, pointed appendages. Pollinia solitary in each locule. Stigma large, umbonate. Follicles solitary, 3.8-10 x 1.8 cm, straight, smooth, tapering to a point. Seed c. 1 cm long, flat, pale-brown, margin conspicuous, coma c. 2.5 cm long.

Stems 1-10 m, yellowish green, pubescent when new, those of previous year pale gray, glabrescent, usually sparsely lenticellate. Petiole 1.5-5 cm; leaf blade ovate, 4-12 × 3-10 cm, base deeply cordate with narrow sinus, apex acuminate; basal veins 3, lateral veins to 6 pairs. Cymes umbel-like, 15-30-flowered; peduncle 0.5-1.5 cm, puberulent. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, puberulent. Corolla yellowish green; tube 6-10 × 4-6 mm, puberulent outside, pilose or glabrous with pilose throat inside; lobes oblong, 6-12 × 3-6 mm, ciliate. Corona lobes slightly fleshy, basal part ovate, apex acuminate, often notched to deeply lobed, internal appendage often longer than lobe proper. Pollinia oblong or reniform. Stigma head capitate. Follicles lanceolate in outline, 7-13 × 2-3.5 cm, glabrous, somewhat obtusely 4-angled. Seeds broadly ovate, ca. 1 × 1 cm, flat, apex truncate, margin membranous; coma 3-4 cm. Fl. May-Oct, fr. Oct-Dec. 2n = 22.

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab), Kashmir, India (Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Behar, Central and S. India); Burma (vide Hook. f., l.c.).

Fl. Per.: July-August.

Open woods, bushland. Guangdong, Guangxi; cultivated elsewhere in S China [India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Pakistan, Vietnam; Europe, North and South America].

Asclepias cordata N. L. Burman, Fl. Indica 72, fig. 2. 1768; Cynanchum odoratissimum Loureiro; Oxystelma ovatum P. T. Li & S. Z. Huang; Pergularia minor Andrews; P. odoratissima (Loureiro) Smith; Telosma minor (Andrews) Craib; T. odoratissima (Loureiro) Coville.