Operculina turpethum flowers, with structure of stem.

This twisted structure of stems gives it the name Trivrt.

Form: Prostrate or scrambling vine

Growth Rate: Fast

Character: Twining much twisted together and tough

Stem Structure: Simple, triangular or rectangular with hairy stem

Size: Moderate Sized

Colour: Green, and though brown when old

Spread: 10 To 20 Feet

Thorn Presence: No Thorns

Other properties: pubescent, sulcate or angular, winged with about 3-5 wings , glabrous or a little downy

Leaf Arrangement: Alternate

Leaf Type: Simple 

Leaf Size: 5-10 cm by 1.3-7 cm

Leaflets Number: 6-7 Pairs

Leaflet Margin: Dentate to shallowly lobed

Leaflet Shape: Variable heart shape

Leaflet Apex: Acute

Leaflet Base: Cordate or hastate

Leaf Venation: Reticulately veined

Leaf Color: Green

Surface characters: Hairy

Pubescence: More or less pubescent on both sides especially when young minute

Peduncles: Peduncles stout, to 30 cm long, with compact cymes of up to 7

Petioles: Long hirsute petioles

Operculina turpethum with showy corolla.

Inflorescence: One, or few in Cymes; axillary clusters of 1-3 on stalk to 10cm

Flower Color: White, with a tinge of cream colour

Peduncles: Aillary, 1-4 flowered,10cm long, Stout

Bracts: 2, Large, lanceolate, conspicuous, orbicular to oval, membranous, concave, pubescent, somewhat persistent, 2.5-4 cm long,  often pinkish, soon shed

Flower Characteristics: Funnel shaped; Very Showy

Flowering: Flowers in June

Sepals: 5, glossy, tinged pink, to 3cm long orbicular, obtuse, mucronulate, accrescent, outer sepals the largest, pubescent, ovate-roundish, but in fruits it becomes much enlarged

Corolla: white, campanulate or broadly funnel-form, spreading to about 5cm; and .5 cm long

Stamens: strongly included, 

Anthers: anthers tightly coiled, pollen not spinulose

Capsule: globose, dull black 4-sided, 4-celled, 13.8mm diam, enclosed in the enlarged brittle, very imbricate sepals, glabrous or faintly pubescent.

Trivrt fruits bracketed by papery sepals.

Fruit Type: Glabrous, Indehiscent

Fruit: translucent capsule with 2-4 cells

Fruit epicarp: Crcumscissile

Lid: caducous, leaving a transparent window in endocarp showing locules with seed

Fruit shape: Round

Fruit Size: 4cm long

Fruit (Unripe) Color: Pink

Fruit (Ripened) Color: Dull Black

Seed: 4, glabrous, round,  1 in each cell

Seeds length: 6 mm.

Seed colour: Black

Seed surface: Smoot

Fruit Maturity: Fruit maturity occurs by November

Fruit Covering: Bracketed by papery sepals

Fruit Characteristics: Does Not Attract Wildlife.

Propagation: via seeds

Fruit with transparent covering and endocarp, with visible seeds.

Form: Fibrous

Growth Rate: Fast

Character: Long, slender, fleshy and much branched

Root Structure: Woody with easily removable bark

Size: Long

Colour: reddish black

Spread: 10 To 20 Feet

Other properties: when fresh contain a milky juice which quickly hardens into a resinous substance, altogether soluble in spirits of wine

Character of milk: The milk has a taste at first sweetish, afterwards slightly acid;

In residue left after exhaustion with water the following structures are usually found – a few fragments of the outer epidermis of the capsule, epidermal cells, small 5/6 sided with a little bit thickened walls, stomata few large or ranunculaceous type, fragments of Operculina leaf, upper epidermis of thin walled polygonal cells. Stomata very few, lower epidermis of cells with slightly wavy walls, stomata numerous, large of ranculous type, fragments of mesophyl and vascular bundles.

The epidermis consists of tabular brown cells. The parenchyma is starchy, scattered very large cells of resin, numerous rosette-like raphids. The very large vascular bundles are composed of large dotted vessels surrounded by woody fibers each of the prominent external ridge of bark contains one of the bundles.

The central cane like woody column of the root or stem when present is seen to be divided into 4 parts 4 bands of parenchyma (medullary rays). It consists of large dotted vessels connected together by narrow portions of woody fiber. The black Nishot has exactly same structure as that of white Nishot.