Diplocyclos palmatus aka Lollipop Climber

Diplocyclos palmatus belongs to the cucumber family, Cucurbitaceae. This short-lived perennial vine lives for more than one year. It comes from the Old World's tropics and subtropics. Its range spans tropical Africa, India, Malaysia, and Australasia. Kew puts it in a tropical zone with dry seasons. Yet accounts of its habitat often list wet sites. These include woods, flood plains, and grasslands that flood in some seasons. It also grows on land once used for crops.

A fleshy rootstock sends up new stems each year. The stems form many branches and trail on the ground. Tendrils grip nearby plants and help the vine climb through them. The listed plant height is about 16 feet [5 metres]. Each stem can reach about 20 feet [6 metres] long. These long stems help it spread through nearby growth. Some gardeners grow the vine for the look of its fruit. The supplied accounts give no details of its flowers or leaves.

The vine grows in full sun or moderate shade. It needs soil that lets excess water drain away. In the wild, it grows in rain forests and swamp forests. It also grows in valleys and grasslands with swamps in some seasons. Records range from sea level to about 6,230 feet [1,900 metres]. These varied sites do not show how much frost it can take. The sources give no hardiness rating or time of bloom. Growers can use seeds or stem cuttings to raise it. For sowing, the source favours fresh seed stripped of fruit pulp.

Reports of food use clash with grave warnings about poison. People in some countries cook the leaves as a vegetable. Some groups in Southeast Asia eat young fruits and shoots too. Other accounts say both leaves and fruit are poisonous. One warns that all parts can cause severe poisoning. Dried leaves have killed calves and ewes. Reports also link deaths in children to eating the fruit. These food uses do not prove it is safe to eat.

People use several parts in traditional medicine. Reports list roots for snakebite and stems for coughs. People have used leaves and fruit for stomach pain. Other uses include fruit as a laxative and seeds for fever. These uses do not prove that such treatments are safe. Reports of poison still matter despite food and medicine uses.