Parabaena sagittata Miers ex Hook. f. & Thomson, Fl. Ind. 181. 1855 & in Fl. Brit. India 1: 96. 1872.

Slender climbers with milky juice; branches finely striate, pubescent. Leaves ovate or oblong, sagittate, cordate or hastate at base, with acute basal lobes, acuminate at apex, entire or distantly toothed, 11 - 24 x 6 - 15 cm, thinly coriaceous, usually glabrous above, densely pubescent to subglabrous beneath; basal nerves 3 - 5; lateral nerves 3 - 5 pairs; petioles 4 - 12 cm long, pubescent. Inflorescences axillary or slightly supra-axillary, dichotomously branched cymes, occasionally thyrsoid, 3 - 10 cm long; flowers few to many, often solitary or paired. Male flowers: pedicels 1 - 2 mm long; sepals yellow, equal, elliptic, 1.5 - 2 cm long, externally pubescent or glabrous; petals narrowly obovate, 1 - 1.5 mm long; staminal column ca 1 mm long; anthers 6, free, with transverse slits. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male flowers; staminodes 6, oblong; carpels 3, erect; style recurved. Drupes ovoid, rostrate, ca 7 x 5 mm, orange, glabrous; endocarp rotund in outline (excluding apical keel), with 2 rows of spines, mixed with scattered spines on the dorsal surface, 5 - 6 x 4.5 - 5.5 mm.

Fl. April- July; Fr. June - Dec.

Distrib. India: In subtropical evergreen scrubs or mixed forests on steep slopes in shaded ravines, close to streams on calcareous rocks, up to 1500 m. West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Bhutan, Bangladesh and S.W. China (Yunnan).