Synonyms: Lyonsia APNI*
Description: Woody climbers with twining stems, often tall; latex usually clear, colourless or pale yellow, but opaque and milky-white in 2 N.S.W. species (P. longipetiolata, and P. dorrigoensis).
Leaves opposite, petiolate; leaves on juvenile plants often differing markedly in shape and size from those on adult plants.
Flowers in cymes or panicles. Calyx often with minute glands inside near the base. Corolla yellowish or white; tube short and mostly with a ring of reflexed hairs at the throat; lobes mostly spreading or recurved, contorted-imbricate or valvate in bud. Anthers fused in a cone around the style head and adhering to it mostly, partially or fully exserted from the corolla tube, each narrowed at the apex, fertile in the upper half only, expanded at the base into 2 sterile lobes. Nectariferous scales 5, free or fused, inserted around the ovary. Carpels fused, ovary usually superior, 2-locular with axile placentas and numerous ovules; style head dilated, mostly capitate, surrounded near the base by a thick or membranous ring adherent to the anthers.
Fruit a capsule, terete, elongated and pod-like, or ovoid, separating when mature into 2 follicle-like segments and a thin septum; seeds numerous, with a coma of long silky hairs.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 130 species, South-East Asia to New Guinea, N.C., New Zealand & Polynesia. Australia: c. 22 species (c. 20 endemic), all States, mostly tropical and E coast and a few from dry inland areas.
Text by G. J. Harden & J. B. Williams
Taxon concept:
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Parsonsia howeana,
Parsonsia largiflorens
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves on adult plants more than 8 times as long as wide, linear to lanceolate; anther cone long-exserted above the corolla on spirally twisted filaments; fruit ovoid or narrow-ovoid; widespread inland species of the Slopes and plains | Parsonsia eucalyptophylla |
| Leaves on adult plants usually less than 8 times as long as wide, not linear, sometimes lanceolate but usually wider; anther cone partially or almost wholly exserted but never raised high above the corolla, filaments twisted or not twisted; fruit more or less terete, mostly slender; chiefly in coastal areas, sometimes extending to the Slopes and plains | 2 |
| 2 | Leaves less than 4.5 cm long, margins crisped or flatter and finely toothed | Parsonsia lilacina |
| Leaves usually more than 4.5 cm long, margins neither crisped nor toothed (sometimes shallowly toothed at the base only in Parsonsia tenuis)
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Corolla glabrous inside; apex of leaves obtuse, emarginate or short-acute and with a stiff point | Parsonsia lanceolata |
| Corolla with a ring of hairs at the throat, sometimes tube and lobes also hairy inside; apex of leaves mostly gradually acute or acuminate
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Leaves softly pubescent on lower surface; petiole and branchlets densely pubescent (older leaves sometimes glabrescent in Parsonsia velutina) | 5 |
| Leaves glabrous or with inconspicuous sparse fine hairs on lower surface
Back to 3 | 8 |
| 5 | Hairs fawn to brownish, especially on young leaves and stems, the young expanding leaves brown-silky or furry on both surfaces; leaves broad, 3.5–9 cm wide; anthers without a dorsal keel or crest | 6 |
| Hairs mostly colourless or whitish, the leaves and shoots neither brownish nor silky; leaves 1–5 cm wide; anthers with a prominent dorsal keel or ridge
Back to 4 | 7 |
| 6 | Leaves broad-ovate or elliptic, apex short-acuminate or acute, base broad-cuneate to rounded or shallowly cordate (2-lobed at the base in leaves on juvenile plants), small domatia usually present; flowers pedicellate in loose cymose panicles | Parsonsia fulva |
| Leaves ovate, apex acuminate to a fine point, base strongly cordate (2-lobed at the base in leaves on juvenile plants), domatia absent; flowers more or less sessile in condensed cymes
Back to 5 | Parsonsia velutina |
| 7 | Tertiary veins of leaves numerous and prominent on lower surface forming backwardly curving connections between secondary veins; corolla tube globose | Parsonsia ventricosa |
| Tertiary veins faint, few and irregular or transverse on lower surface, not forming a regular curving pattern; corolla tube cylindrical
Back to 5 | Parsonsia tenuis |
| 8 | Leaves with the secondary veins faintly visible on upper surface and more or less invisible on lower surface; older stems more than 5 mm diam. with prominent corky outgrowths | Parsonsia rotata |
| Leaves with the secondary veins (and often some smaller veins) distinct on lower surface; stems without discrete corky outgrowths
Back to 4 | 9 |
| 9 | Corolla tube ovoid or globose | 10 |
| Corolla tube cylindric or gradually tapering to the base, neither ovoid nor globose
Back to 8 | 11 |
| 10 | Milky latex exuding from cut stems and petioles; corolla tube ovoid, lobes strongly recurved; anthers with only the tips exserted, filaments twisted | Parsonsia dorrigoensis |
| Clear watery sap exuding from cut stems and petioles; corolla tube globose, lobes spreading; anthers half-exserted, filaments not twisted
Back to 9 | Parsonsia ventricosa |
| 11 | Leaves finely reticulate on both surfaces, the reticulum raised in dried leaves; climbing by adventitious roots but some stems twining and without climbing roots | Parsonsia straminea |
| Leaves with the fine reticulum invisible; climbing roots absent
Back to 9 | 12 |
| 12 | Leaves with 9 or more pairs of secondary veins | Parsonsia brownii |
| Leaves with 3–8 (rarely 9) pairs of secondary veins
Back to 11 | 13 |
| 13 | Clear watery latex exuding from cut stems and petioles; leaves more than twice as long as broad; petiole less than half as long as lamina; corolla lobes no longer than tube | 14 |
| Milky latex exuding from cut stems and petioles; leaves with the blades less than twice as long as broad; petiole mostly more than half as long as lamina; corolla lobes more than 4 times long as tube
Back to 12 | Parsonsia longipetiolata |
| 14 | Leaves very thin and soft, the reticulum mostly invisible, secondary veins usually interconnecting to form a fine intramarginal vein; dried leaves green on upper surface, green to pale purple on lower surface; apex long-acuminate to a fine point, corolla lobes erect, hood-shaped | Parsonsia induplicata |
| Leaves firm, of moderate thickness, the coarser reticulum visible, no intramarginal vein present; dried leaves purple or purplish black on both surfaces; apex acute or acuminate with a small stiff point; corolla lobes spreading, not hood-shaped
Back to 13 | Parsonsia purpurascens |
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