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Pithecoctenium

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Open capsule showing septum and seeds

Pithecoctenium is a Bignoniaceae genus of some 20 species of climbing shrubs occurring in the Caribbean and Tropical South America from Brazil to Mexico. Leaves are opposite with 3 entire and stalked leaflets, the terminal leaflet sometimes being modified into a tendril. The genus has distinctive prickly capsules. [1]

Pithecoctenium crucigerum (L.) A.H. Gentry has become an invasive weed in Australia. [2] Chemical investigation of methanol extracted from this species yielded the iridoid glycoside theviridoside along with five phenylethanoid glycosides (verbascoside, isoverbascoside, forsythoside B, jionoside D and leucosceptoside B), these last all active against DPPH. [3]

'Pithecoctenium' translates to 'Monkey Comb', a rather whimsical view of the prickly fruit.

References

  1. ^ Dictionary of Gardening - Royal Horticultural Society (1956)
  2. ^ http://www.backyardnature.net/mexnat/monkcomb.htm
  3. ^ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17382978
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