Parmentiera aculeata.
Family Bignoniaceae.
A synonym is Parmentiera edulis.
One of 10 species it is known as the Cucumber tree.
It is naturalised, and a weed, in N. E. Queensland.
A much branched, evergreen or partly deciduous shrub or small tree.
Usually about 6 m high it can be more.
It has slightly fissured bark.
There are usually 2 stout spines up to 15 mm long at the stem nodes.
Leaves, up to 8 cm long are opposite.
They have a grooved and winged petiole up to 3 or 4 cm long.
Leaves are trifoliate with 3 obovate or elliptic leaflets.
Leaflets are bright green and on winged stalks.
Inflorescences are 1 or a few trumpet-shaped flowers.
They are on old wood (trunk or branches) or at the leaf nodes.
The 3 cm long calyx is spathe-like and opens on one side.
The greenish-white, bilabiate corolla is up to 6 or 7 cm long.
It has 5 lobes with slightly frilly edges.
There are purplish lines on the lobes.
The corolla is ribbed with the furrows a slightly deeper green.
There are 2 pairs of stamens of unequal lengths and a staminode.
The single style has a large, 2-lobed stigma.
There is a annular disc around the ovary.
The fruit are slightly curved, cylindrical, ribbed berries up to 18 cm long.
They ripen from green to reddish-yellow.
There are flat, brown 3 mm seeds in the fibrous flesh.
J.F.
