Araujia sericifera is a creeping vine that can climb up to high. When broken it releases a milky, smelly exudate. Leaves are opposite, dark green, glossy and quite fleshy, almost triangular, with entire margins, about long and wide with an intact leaf margin. The upper side is dark green, bare and shiny, the underside is grey-green with felt-like hairs. When a stem, leaf or unripe fruit is broken, a white milky juice is produced at the breaking point. It is slightly toxic and can cause an allergic
skin reaction when touched. The stems are thin and right-winding. They branch strongly and can lignify at the base. The plant usually wraps itself around other plants or around a post or the bars of a fence. The root system consists of a short
taproot with superficial
lateral roots. The plant's stems and leaves may senesce in late summer or early autumn, but new shoots will grow on the old stems as climbing support.
Inflorescences The twining stems feature scented, cup-shaped bisexual flowers, around in width, with five white, cream-coloured, violet or pale pink petals. The flowers are generally pollinated by moths (hence the name "moth plant"), butterflies and bees (
entomophily), but they can self-pollinate. The flowering period extends from late spring to summer. The flowers of Araujia sericifera resemble those of
Stephanotis floribunda in some respects, a vine that also belongs to the dogbane family. The pear-shaped fruits are large pods, about long. They contain many black seeds attached to silky hairs that enable them to be distributed by the wind. The fruits outwardly resemble those of
chayote or choko (
Sechium edule), hence the name
false choko.
Insect trap The structure of the flower includes a number of wedge-shaped openings that function as an
insect trap (hence its English name of "cruel plant"), without being a
carnivorous plant, where it occasionally and inadvertently traps the pollinator's
proboscis, leading to its death. When the foragers put their tongue in the flower, it is blocked by hooks and only the most robust insects manage to free themselves. The insects can die in the flower if the captivity lasts too long. The
hummingbird hawk-moth,
monarch butterfly, and some bees are often victims of this plant. ==Distribution==