Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition Lophospermum erubescens D.Don Family: Plantaginaceae Don, D. (1832) The British Flower Garden Ser. 2, 1: 68. Type: "The seeds of the above interesting plant were obtained from specimens collected in thickets, near Jalapa, in September, 1829, by Messrs. Deppe and Schiede, two German Botanists, who have been for some time in Mexico." Common name: Climbing Lophospermum; Maurandia; Lophospermum, Climbing; Creeping Gloxinia; Gloxinia, Creeping; Snapdragon Vine; Vine, Snapdragon; Snapdragon, Climbing; Climbing Snapdragon Stem A slender vine not exceeding a stem diameter of 2 cm. Leaves Leaf blades ovate-cordate, very soft, about 6-8 x 6-8 cm, margin with 1 or 2 lobes on each side towards the base and about 18-20 rounded teeth on each side. Petiole about 4.5-6 cm long, often modified to form coiled tendrils. Upper and lower leaf blades surfaces densely clothed in pale simple Flowers. © CSIRO hairs. Lateral veins poorly developed. Flowers Peduncles about 20-25 mm long. Sepals ovate, about 25 x 15 mm, densely hairy on both surfaces, folded near the base. Corolla tube curved, about 60 mm long, throat white. Corolla lobes about 12 x 15-16 mm, apices rounded. Stamens attached near the base of the corolla tube. Staminal filaments about 35-45 mm long, 2 long and 2 shorter, clothed in glandular hairs on the upper half with a large glandular appendage near the apex. Ovary hairy, about 4 mm long. Style hairy towards the base. Ovules numerous. Fruit. © CSIRO Fruit Fruits +/- bilobed, about 16 x 23 x 15 mm, calyx lobes rather large, persistent at the base, stylar remnants often persistent at the apex. Seeds numerous, winged all around, seed + wing about 3-4 mm diam. Seeds clothed in numerous finger-like trichomes. Embryo about 0.5 mm long. Radicle about as wide as the cotyledons. Seedlings Cotyledons orbicular, about 3.5-6 x 3.5-7 mm. Both the upper and lower surfaces and margins clothed in scattered crisped hairs. First pair of leaf blades ovate-cordate, margin with 1-3 large teeth on each side. Upper and lower surfaces clothed in erect translucent hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade cordate, base deeply lobed, margin toothed, almost lobed. Leaf blade about 6.5-7 x 6-6.5 cm, petiole about 4 cm long. All seedling parts clothed in soft, erect hairs. Seed germination time 26 Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO to 31 days. Distribution and Ecology An introduced species originally from Mexico, now naturalised in NEQ and in south eastern Queensland and north eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range in NEQ uncertain but collected at 900-960 m. In NEQ usually found on rain forest margins. Also naturalised in New Guinea and other parts of Malesia. Synonyms Asarina erubescens (D.Don) Pennell, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 99: 174 (1947). RFK Code 10th leaf stage. © CSIRO 2660 Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved. Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO Web edition hosted at https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest.