''Mallotus repandus'', known in Australia as the climbing mallotus, is a species of plant in the spurge family

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...

. It is native to the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

mainland Southeast Asia Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It has been given different definitions. The ...

, New Guinea, Queensland, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Description

''Mallotus repandus'' is an evergreen vine that may reach up to long and a stem diameter of up to . It is the only ''

Mallotus ''Mallotus'' may refer to: * ''Mallotus'' (fish), a fish genus in the family Osmeridae * ''Mallotus'' (plant), a plant genus in the family Euphorbiaceae {{genus disambiguation ...

'' species to grow as a liana. Bark is dark brownish grey. Branchlets, petioles and inflorescences are dull yellowish-brown. The blaze (longitudinal cut of the bark) is finely layered, with an odour of green peas (''

Pisum sativum The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

''). The simple and broad leaves are slightly peltate. Flowers are yellowish. It flowers in China from March to May, and fruits from June to September. The species can be distinguished from other ''Mallotus'' species, by its being a climber and that its upper leaf surface have more than 2 marginal extrafloral

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

ies, and that its fruits are (1-or) 2- or 3- locular. A

molecular phylogeny Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study has ''M. repandus'' as a sister species of '' M. phillippensis'' (Lam.) Muell.Arg. The

indumentum In biology, an indumentum (Latin, literally: "garment") is a covering of trichomes (fine "hairs") on a plant Davis, Peter Hadland and Heywood, Vernon Hilton (1963) ''Principles of angiosperm taxonomy'' Van Nostrandpage, Princeton, New Jersey, pa ...

/hairs on the leaves of the plant are simple and multicellular, a trait only found amongst the ''Mallotus'' genera in the closely related ''M. philippensis''.

Habitat

The climber/shrub grows locally scattered in the understorey of primary to secondary forest, and in disturbed sites and scrub. It can be found at forest edges,

mangrove swamp Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fre ...

edges, road and river sides, ridges, steep slopes and dry ground. It is able to grow on various soil types, including those derived from limestone and granite, on sandy loam and rocky soils. It occurs from sea level to 1500m altitude. It generally flowers and fruits throughout the year. Grows in both lowland and upland rain forest in Queensland, at elevations from near sea level to 750m. In Southeast Asia, the liana/shrub occurs in secondary vegetation formations or on the edges of dense forests. In China it is found in thickets, forest and their fringes, hills and mountain valleys below 100m. The plant is sometimes harmed by infestation with the parasite plant '' Cuscuta japonica'' (''Japanese dodder''). It provides food for the moth '' Acrocercops zopherandra''. It is one of three ''Mallotus'' species that host the fungus ''

Cercospora malloti ''Cercospora'' is a genus of Ascomycota, ascomycete fungi. Most species have no known sexual stage, and when the sexual stage is identified, it is in the genus ''Mycosphaerella''. Most species of this genus cause Plant pathology, plant diseases, ...

''.

Distribution

The climbing mallotus is native to a very broad area from India to Oceania, including India, East Himalaya, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, much of east, central and southern China, Taiwan, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, New Guinea, Queensland, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu.

Common names

Vernacular names for ''M. repandus'' include:

Uses

On the island of Rote, eastern Indonesia, the wood of this plant, ''bina'', is one of two used to make the bars for ''meko ai'' (

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...

whose bars are made of wood), it is also recorded in an origin myth for this musical instrument. In Cambodia, the wood is used to make charcoal for powder. In Kut Chum District, central northeast Thailand, it is used in folk-medicine as an antibiotic, while Northeastern Thai people use it to relieve bone-pain, while elsewhere in Thailand the bark is used in ethnomedicine to treat herpes simplex, inflammation and liver poisoning.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q11076094 repandus Flora of China Flora of tropical Asia Flora of Queensland Flora of Taiwan Flora of New Caledonia Plants described in 1865