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Ichnocarpus frutescens
Ichnocarpus frutescens, known as black creeper, is a woody climbing shrub in the dogbane family that sprawls or scrambles over other plants. It suits warm, humid tropical conditions and is grown mainly where it is native rather than as a common garden or houseplant.
Ichnocarpus frutescens is a species of flowering plant in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, known by the English common name black creeper. It is native to much of China, India, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia.
It is a woody shrub with lianas sprawling to 10 m (33 ft) in maximum length and 6 cm (2.4 in) in diameter. The bark produces a creamy white sap. The leaves are up to 11 cm (4.3 in) long by 4.5 cm (1.8 in) wide. The inflorescence is a head of several flowers. Each flower has a calyx of densely hairy sepals and a five lobed corolla just under a centimeter long. The fruit is a follicle which may be over 14 cm (5.5 in) long. The roots may be reddish or purple. The plant is sold in markets in some areas in India.
The plant has a large number of traditional medicinal uses, including for rheumatism, asthma, cholera, and fever. Some in vitro and rodent studies have suggested that extracts of the plant may inhibit tumors, protect liver cells from damage in acetaminophen overdose, and reduces complications of hyperlipidemia in diabetic rats. There have been no published studies testing any of these effects in humans.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ichnocarpus frutescens by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
