S.I. ALI
Ceropegia tuberosa Dalz. & Gibson
Tuber globose. Stem trailing or twining, usually glabrous. Leaves orbicular, ovate, lanceolate to linear, 3-6 cm long, slightly cordate, fleshy, glabrous, subsessile to petiolate. Cymes pedunculate, 3-5 flowered arising between the petioles, peduncle 1.2-2.6 cm long. Pedicels 3-7 mm long. Sepals 2-2.5 mm long, lanceolate, acute. Corolla 1.2-2.5 cm long, whitish green, purple striate, lobes deep purple, 44.5 mm long, narrow, pilose. Outer corona lobes rounded to shortly acute, inner lobes linear, c. 2 mm long. Follicles 10 x 0.4-0.5 cm, taper towards apex, glabrous. Seeds 8-9 mm long, flattened, ovate-oblong, margin broad, membranous, coma 2.5-3.8 cm long.
Fl.Per.: July-August.
Type: Coromandal, Roxb., Pl. Corom. 1:t.7.1795.
Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab); India (Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, W. Peninsula).
The tubers and leaves are eaten. An alkaloid, ceropegine, is present in tubers which makes them bitter, somewhat like raw turnips.