Herbs with trailing or twining stems, perennial, glabrous. Leaves deeply palmately 5-lobed, with the two basal lobes sometimes forked unequally, 1-7 cm long, 1-6 cm wide, the lobes linear to lanceolate, 0.8-3 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, acute, mucronulate. Flowers mostly solitary. Sepals subequal, elliptic to obovate, obtuse to rounded apically, 7-8 mm long, 6-7 mm wide, glabrous, the margins membranous. Corolla yellowish (fide collector), funnelform and (1.5-) 3 cm long in African plants. Fruits capsular, ovoid, light brown, glabrous, 7-8 mm in diameter, 8-9 mm long, with the persistent style remaining. Seeds ovoid, 3-4 mm in diameter, 5 mm long, dark brown, glabrous.
Fl. Per.: October.
Type: South West Africa. Namaland & Damaraland. Belck 52 (lectotype: BRA fide Verdcourt).
C-7: Islamabad, 18.10.78, 2500 ft., Y. Nasir & M. Qaiser 8967 (RAW, KUH).
Distribution: Africa is the only region wh ere this species has been found previously.
Dr. Bernard Verdcourt, who identified this collection, said that there is another collection in Kew (Sardarsamand, Jodhpur. Bhandari 1971) which is the same plant, and that neither specimen is exactly l ike the African plants. More complete specimens are necessary for final disposition of the Pakistan plants, but we tentatively assign the collection to Merremia palmata. According to Dr. Verdcourt this may be a new subspecies.
