Description: Climbers with slender, twining stems, latex milky or watery.
Leaves with a cluster of minute glands at base of lamina.
Flowers purple or red, rarely white, in simple or compound umbels or short panicles on interpetiolar peduncles. Calyx segments 5, sometimes with small basal glands inside. Corolla mostly rotate, deeply lobed, lobes contorted in bud. Corona of 5 spreading fleshy obtuse knobs fully fused to staminal column, without wings or auricles; pollinia 2 per anther, small, globose, mostly laterally placed. Style head short, broad, obtuse.
Follicles mostly slender narrow-fusiform, acuminate; seeds with a silky coma.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 50 species, Africa & tropical Asia to Australia. Australia: 10–12 species (endemic), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., N.T., W.A.
Text by G. J. Harden & J. B. Williams
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves with lamina lanceolate or ovate, less than 10 times long as broad, more than 10 mm wide; species of the coast and eastern side of the tablelands | 2 |
| Leaves with lamina linear, 10–20 times as long as broad, less than 3 mm wide; inland species of the Western Slopes | Tylophora linearis |
| 2 | Corolla 2–4 mm diameter; lobes 1.5–2 mm long; latex white | Tylophora biglandulosa |
| Corolla 5 mm or more in diameter; lobes more than 2 mm long; latex clear or yellow
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Flowers white or pale green, corolla lobes elongated, linear to almost filiform, broader at base; flowers in loose, open, cymose panicles often exceeding leaves | Tylophora paniculata |
| Flowers purple or red, corolla lobes ovate, oblong or triangular, not linear to filiform; flowers in umbels or small panicles, usually shorter than the leaves
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Flowers more than 13 mm diam., corolla lobes more or less triangular to oblong-ovate, 6–9 mm long; leaves with lamina mostly less than 4 cm long, lower surface pubescent | Tylophora grandiflora |
| Flowers less than 11 mm diam., corolla lobes ovate to lanceolate, less than 6 mm long; leaves usually more than 3.5 cm long, if smaller then glabrous or almost so
Back to 3 | 5 |
| 5 | Leaves with lamina pubescent on lower surface, broad-ovate, mostly 6–12 cm long, 3–8 cm wide, base strongly cordate, apex mucronate or shortly acuminate, main reticulum distinct on lower surface; petioles 1.5–5 cm long, finely pubescent; latex yellowish, opaque; flowers 8–11 mm diam | Tylophora benthamii |
| Leaves with lamina glabrous or very sparsely hairy, broad-lanceolate to more or less ovate, 2.5–8 cm long, 1–5.5 cm wide, base rounded, cuneate or shallowly cordate, apex acute or acuminate; venation reticulate, obscure or a few coarse net veins visible; petioles 0.7–2 cm long glabrous or finely pubescent; latex not yellow; flowers 5–6 mm diam
Back to 4 | 6 |
| 6 | Inflorescences of 1 or 2 short umbels; corolla lobes shortly hairy, c. 2 mm long; leaves with lamina 2.5–6 cm long, the base cuneate or rarely rounded | Tylophora barbata |
| Inflorescences of 3–7 or more short umbels, in a divaricately branching panicle, branches often zig-zag; corolla lobes glabrous, 2–2.5 mm long,; leaves with lamina 3.5–8 cm long, the base slightly to distinctly cordate
Back to 5 | Tylophora woollsii |
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