ABSTRACT
Cassytha filiformis is the only pantropical member in the genus. It has many names in indigenous languages in the Old World, especially in the Indian peninsula region. The first common name recorded for the Old World was from the Malabar Coast of India where Dutch botanist Hedrik van Rheede recorded the name acatlia-valli in the late 1600s. That name is most similar to the Sanskrit akásvalli (sky vine), but it is also related to akáshvel (sky vine, Bengali), akáshwel (sky vine, Marathi), acatsjabulli (maybe also sky vine, Malayalam), and amarbeli (live-forever vine, Hindi).
