Secamone alpini Schultes

alpini: named after Prospero Alpino (1553-1617), Italian botanist.

Robust liane or sometimes a scrambling shrub with milky latex. Stems forming tendril-like coils, covered in minute rusty hairs. Leaves opposite, ovate-oblong, lanceolate or obovate, 2.5-9 cm long, leathery, often apiculate, rusty hairs beneath, particularly when young; petiole up to 11 mm. Flowers in axillary and terminal branched heads. Corolla greenish-yellow or white, lobes covered in spreading white hairs on the inside. Only staminal corona lobes present, small erect. Fruit in paired widely diverging, slender follicles, 4.5-10 cm long, dark greenish-brown, tapering to a long point.

Frequent

Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Secamone alpini (also known as monkey rope or melktou) is a species of forest creeper in the family Apocynaceae. Its natural habitat is the afro-montane forests of eastern and southern Africa, from Kenya to Cape Province.

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