Telosma cordata (Burm.f.) Merrill

Asclepias cordata Burm.f., Asclepias pallida Roxb., Cynanchum odoratissimum Loureiro, Oxystelma ovatum P.T. Li & S.Z. Huang, Pergularia minor Andrews, Pergularia odoratissima (Loureiro) Roxb. ex Smith, Telosma minor (Andrews) W.G. Craib, Telosma odoratissima (Loureiro) Coville

Asclepiadaceae

Chinese Violet, Cowslip, East Coast Creeper, Fragrant Telosma, Night Fragrant Flower, Pakalana Vine, Primrose Creeper, Tonkin Creeper, Tonkin Jasmine, Tonkin Telosma

The plant is a native of India, Burma, Indochina and South China. It is widely cultivated in Southeast Asia especially in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. It was introduced and cultivated in Java from the seventeenth century.

In its native range, the plant is found in secondary forest, bushland and open woods in low elevation in the subtropics and tropics. It is also cultivated in home gardens. It thrives in full sun in well-drained, fertile sandy-loam soil with optimum pH 6.1–7.5. It is tolerant to drought and poor soil but sensitive to flooding and cold.

Opened and unopened flowers in umbels and young leaves are eaten as vegetables in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos, cooked in soups or stir-fries with eggs and with meat (Burkill 1966; Uphof 1968; Facciola 1990; Hu 2005; Tanaka and Nguyen 2007; Yang et al. 2008). Tuberous roots are also eaten as sweetmeat by the Chinese in Java. Flowers yield an oil which is used in cooking.

Small, perennial, climber growing to 10 m long with much-branched, yellowish green stem, pubescent when young becoming pale grey and glabrescent (Plate 1). Leaves borne on 1.5–5 cm long petioles. Leaf lamina ovate, 6–11 cm long, base deeply cordate with narrow sinus, apex acuminate; basal veins 3, lateral veins to six pairs, glabrous or puberulous on the nerves (Plates 1, 2 and 3). Flowers in 15–30-flowered, umbellate cymes, puberulent, fragrant especially at night (Plates 4 and 5). Bract linear, caducous. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, puberulent on the outside. Corolla greenish-yellow to pale yellow, salver-shaped, tube 6–10 × 4–6 mm, puberulent outside, with ciliate, oblong-linear lobes, twisted in bud (Plates 1 and 3). Corona in one series with slightly fleshy lobes, basal part ovate, apex acuminate, often notched to deeply lobed, internal appendage often longer than lobe proper. Pistil with two carpels with numerous ovules on submarginal placenta. Filaments united, anthers with two locules each with one oblong or reniform pollinia. Stigma large, capitate. Follicles lanceolate 6–12 × 2–3.5 cm, glabrous, somewhat obtusely 4-angled. Seeds broadly ovate, 1 × 1 cm, flat, apex truncate, margin membranous bearing 3–4 cm long silky coma.