Tetrastigma sulcatum (M. Lawson) Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 1: 229. 1918. Vitia aulcata M. Lawson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 661. 1875.

Large climbing shrubs; branches angled, sulcate, muricate or tuberculate, glabrous; tendrils simple. Leaves 3-5-foliolate, coriaceous, glabrous, brown When dry; petioles 5-9 cm long; terminal leaflets elliptic-lanceolate, 12-19 x 5-7 cm, acuminate at apex, acute at base, serrate at margins; venation between secondary veins prominent; petioiules 1.5-3 cm long; lateral leaflets 8-13 x 3-6 cm, oblique at base, otherwise as in terminal leaflets; petiolules ca 1.5 cm long. Inflorescences corymbose cymes, ca 5 cm long, pubescent. Flowers ca 2.5 mm long; pedicels ca 3 mm long, pubescent. Calyx cupular, 4-lobed, pubescent. Petals oblong, ca 2.2 x 1.5 mm, slightly ,hooded, pubescent. Stamens ca 1.7 mm long; anthers oblong. Disc ring-shaped, thick. Ovary ca 1.5 mm across; style short; stigma 4-lobed. Berries globose, 2-2.5 cm across. Seeds oblong-obovoid, ca 12 x 7 mm, faintly crenate on sides; adaxial surface with a longitudinal raphe and a furrow on either side of it radiating at an angle, abaxial surface with a spathulate chalaza.

Fl. & Fr. : Dec. - Oct.

Distrib. India: Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Notes. Lawson (l.c.) while describing Vitis sulcata wrongly cited Wight lc. t. 28, which belongs to Tetrastigma nilagiricum (Miq.) Shetty. Planchon (in DC., Monogr. Phan. 5: 424. 1887). merged this species with T. lanceolarium Planchon [T. leucostaphylum (Dennst.) Alston ex Mabb.], but Gamble (l.c.) reinstated it and made the new combination T. sulcatum (M. Lawson) Gamble. Talbot (Forest Fl. Bombay 1: 324. 1909) wrongly named this species as V. reticulata. V. reticulata Thwaites in fact belongs to the genus Cayratia.

Chromosome number 2n=52 (Patil, V.P. et. al. in Curro Sci. 49: 37- 38. 1980).