Rangoon Creeper

Rangoon creeper (Combretum indicum, syn. Quisqualis indica) is a vine of the family Combretaceae. It is a vigorously climbing woody vine that can reach from 2.5 meters to up to 8 meters. The leaves are simple and elliptical, 7 to 15 centimeters long, and arranged opposite each other.

The flowers are tubular and fragrant. The flower is initially white and opens at dusk to attract hawkmoths. On the second day it turns pink, and on the third it turns red, attracting day flying bees and birds. It is thought that the change in colour is a strategy to gather more pollinators.

The scent composition is different in the white, pink and red stages, and the scent emission rate decreases from the white to the red stage. A single white flower emits on average 3.54 μg of scent per hour, more than three times the rate of a pink or red flower. In total, 35 volatile organic compounds were found in the floral scent. Twenty-five main compounds were detected across the three stages, among them cis-linalool oxide, epoxylinalool, α-farnesene and cis-3-hexenyl tiglate. cis-3-Hexenyl butyrate, cis-3-hexenyl isovalerate and (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol acetate were mainly identified in the white stage.

The fruit is dark brown, ellipsoidal and has five stiff and prominent wings. The seed tastes like almond or coconut when mature.

Rangoon creeper is native to tropical Asia and grows in thickets, primary and secondary forest, and along river banks in the Indian subcontinent, Malaysia and the Philippines. It has since been cultivated and naturalized in tropical areas such as Burma, Vietnam, and Thailand. Nowadays it is widely cultivated throughout the tropics, mainly as an ornamental hedge plant.

The fruits and seeds are well known throughout Malesia as an anthelmintic, particularly to treat ascarids. In large doses they cause nausea, vomiting, hiccough and even unconsciousness. In Indonesia, a decoction of the root, seed or fruit is used as a vermifuge. The seeds contain quisqualic acid, an agonist for the AMPA receptor, a kind of glutamate receptor in the brain. Rutin and pelargonidin-3-glucoside have been extracted from flowers.

The flowers hang in pendent racemes. The plant flowers throughout the year if the temperature stays high enough and enough water is available. Each flower lasts about three days. The species is self-incompatible and needs pollinators to produce seed. The seeds contain a fixed oil with linoleic, oleic, palmitic, stearic and arachidic acids.

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