Botany
Latok is a woody vine with slender, smooth or slightly hairy branchlets. Leaves are thin, ovate to oblong-ovate, 8 to 13 centimeters long, 3 to 8 centimeters wide, pointed at the tip and slightly heart-shaped at the base. Cymes are axillary and umbelliform. Flowers are numerous, greenish-yellow, odorless, about 1.5 centimeters long, and hairy at the throat. Fruit is lanceolate, about 15 centimeters long. Seeds are flattened and crowned with silky hairs.

Distribution
- Endemic.
- In thickets and secondary forests at low altitudes in Ilocos Norte to Sorsogon Provinces in Luzon; and in Mindoro, Cuyo, Biliran, Leyte, Negros, Mindanao and Basilan.

Parts used
Leaves

Uses
Edibility
- Pericarp is cooked and eaten as vegetable, with the consistency and taste of string beans.
- In Albay, fresh leaves and stems are reported to be poisonous to pigs.
Folkloric
- Decoction or infusion of leaves used for cleansing wounds, scabies and ulcers.
- Leaves, as cataplasm, applied to the forehead for headaches.

Availability
Wild-crafted.