Botanical Description
A hook- climbing liana. Young twigs rarely twining. Stem 1 cm or more in diameter, without exudate, striated, glabrous; outer bark rust brown , inner bark light brown. Leaves alternate, shiny and green on both sides, simple, entire, ovate to elliptic ,apex acuminate, base shallowly cordate coriaceous; petiole 0.1-0.4 cm long, 0.1 cm in diameter, glabrous; venation pinnately netted, eucamptodromous with 5-7 pairs of lateral branches. Hook 1 cm or mor length, green turning brown, terete, the tip very sharp. Flowers shortly pedicelled, bisexual; sepals 3, valvate, fused at the base; petals in 2 whorls of 3, brownish yellow; stamens many; ovaries usually 3-12 (less than 20); ovules 2. Fruits ellipsoid, acutely beaked, 3-5 cm long, red.
Distribution Ecology
Malesia; Java and Philippines. Found in limestone forests and secondary forests at 50-800 m altitudes.
Other Economic Uses
Essential oil cyperenone and 1,5-epoxysalvial-4(14)-ene, both exclusively found in Artabotrys species (Fournier et al. 1997). The stem and bark yield the chemotaxonomically important compounds artabotrine and artabotrinine.
Volume Estimate
Other Plant Notes
This species is preferred over the other annonaceous species in the manufacture of handicraft products because of its very rigid but pliable stems.