Pycnarrhena ozantha is a species of plant in the family Menispermaceae. It is native to New Guinea, Vanuatu and Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia.
Description Pycnarrhena ozantha is a woody climber with a stem diameter up to . It is a twining vine, growing around other objects such as tree trunks and branches for support. Leaves are simple (i.e. without divisions or lobes), and they are arranged alternately on the branches. They measure up to long and are attached to the twigs by a petiole (leaf stalk) about long.
Flowers are produced in clusters in the or on the woody stems. They have between five and ten sepals but no petals. This species is , meaning that (functionally female) and (functionally male) flowers are borne on separate plants.
The fruit is a hairless orange-red drupe about long which contains a single seed.
Phenology In Australia, fruit appear in October and November.
Distribution and habitat The native range of this species is New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Vanuatu and the northern half of Cape York Peninsula. It grows in dryer rainforest types such as gallery forest and monsoon forest, at altitudes up to about .
Taxonomy Pycnarrhena ozantha was first described in 1915 by German botanist Ludwig Diels, based on collections of plant material from the Sepik district of northeastern Papua New Guinea. Diels ended his description lamenting that knowledge of the species of Pycnarrhena is minimal due to a lack of collected material, particularly flowers of both sexes.
Etymology The name Pycnarrhena is created from the words pycno-, 'dense' or 'thick', and arrhen, 'male'. It refers to the dense clusters of male flowers. The species epithet ozantha combines the Ancient Greek words ózō, 'to smell', with ánthos, 'flower'.
Conservation This species is listed as least concern under the Queensland Government's Nature Conservation Act. , it has not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
References
External links
Map of collections of this species at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Observations of this species on iNaturalist Images of this species on Flickriver.com