Rosy Milkweed Vine

The fruit is eaten and the plant is reputed to have medicinal properties.

Decoctions of all parts are used against cancer, menoxenia, and traumatic injury.

Some authorities have suggested that the correct name for this species is Oxystelma secamone (Linnaeus) Karsten, 1883, based on Periploca secamone Linnaeus, 1771, but Goyder & Singh (Taxon 40: 629-630, 1991) showed that P. secamone is a synonym of Secamone alpinii Schultes from Africa.

Perennial twining herb, with milky juice, stem much branched slender, glabrous. Leaves deciduous, 3.8-8.8 cm x 3-9 mm linear or linear lanceolate, acute, pale green, glabrous, petiole 0.5-1.3 cm long. Flowers in pendunculate lateral subumbellate or recemoid 2-4 flowered cymes. Peduncle up to 5 cm long. Pedicels 1.2-2.0 cm long. Calyx lobes 2-3.5 mm long, glabrous. Corolla 1.8-2.5 cm wide, pale rose coloured or almost white, lobes densely pubescent. Follicles 3.8-7 cm long, glabrous. Seeds c. 3.5 mm long, broadly ovate, coma c. 1.8 cm long.

Lianas to at least 4 m, glabrous except for flowers. Petiole 1-1.5 cm; leaf blade linear or linear-lanceolate, 6-11 × 0.7-2 cm, membranous, base rounded; lateral veins 9-12 pairs, marginal vein present. Inflorescences longer than leaves, (1- or) 2-4-flowered. Flower buds 8-9 mm. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, ca. 3.5 × 1 mm. Corolla white with purple veins or blotches, 2-3 cm in diam., limb 1.5-2 cm; lobes triangular, 1-1.5 cm, densely ciliate. Outer corona densely pubescent. Pollinia ca. 1.5 mm. Ovaries glabrous. Follicles lanceolate in outline, ca. 5 × 1.5 cm, apex subacute. Seeds ovate, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm; coma 1.5-2 cm. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Oct-Dec.

W. Asia, Tropical Himalaya, India, east to S. China, Malaysia.

Distribution: Pakistan, India, Burma, Indonesia, Ceylon, Iraq and Egypt.

200 m

Fl.Per.: December.

Moist bushland, stream banks. Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; NE Africa, SW Asia]

Periploca esculenta Linnaeus f., Suppl. Pl. 168. 1781; Asclepias rosea Roxburgh; Oxystelma wallichii Wight; Sarcostemma esculentum (Linnaeus f.) R. W. Holm.

Oxystelma esculentum is a species of flowering plant native to China, South Asia, southeast Asia, northeastern Africa, and south-west Asia. The plant is used in traditional medicine and the fruit is eaten.