Lomoplis ceratonia (L.) Raf.

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

  • Family

    Mimosaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Lomoplis ceratonia (L.) Raf.

  • Description

    Species Description - Known also as Climbing Mimosa , but separated from the true Mimosas by broad, unjointed pods, and by 3-parted flowers, with 6 stamens, this species constitutes a monotypic genus; the Mimosas, represented in the Porto Rico Flora by Mimosa pudica, the Morivivi, Sensitive Plant, also illustrated and described in this work, have narrower, jointed pods, and 4-parted, or 5-parted flowers. This prickly, woody vine inhabits hillsides and thickets, from sea-level, in moist districts, ascending in the mountains to at least 900 meters, and has also been observed on Vieques Island. Its natural distribution is from Santo Domingo eastward through Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands and southward, through the lesser Antilles to St. Vincent. The Spanish popular name Zarza is used also for other prickly plants. The generic name Lomoplis is of Greek derivation. Lomoplis Ceratonia (horny, referring to the pod) is a woody, trailing, or climbing vine, which may become 6 meters long:, or longer, its slender branches, leaf-stalks and leaf-axis armed with hooked prickles. The twice compound leaves have from 1 to 5 pairs of stalked, primary divisions, each with from 3 to 5 pairs of obliquely obovate, thin, rounded, 3-nerved leaflets from 10 to 25 millimeters long. The small, white, or purplish flowers are in several or many, dense, round, clustered heads born on prickly stalks about 2 centimeters long, or shorter; the calyx usually has 3, minute teeth, and the usually 3 petals are slightly united near the base; the 6 stamens are separate, and about 8 millimeters long. The flat, thin, oblong pod is about 6 centimeters long, or shorter, from 14 to 18 millimeters wide, shining, smooth, but its margins armed with hooked prickles, and ultimately separating; the few, or several seeds are oblong.

  • Discussion

    Zarza Black Ambret Mimosa Family Mimosa Ceratonia Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 523. 1753. Acacia Ceratonia Willdenow, Species Plantarum 4: 1091. 1806. Lomoplis Ceratonia Rafinesque, Sylva Telluriana 118. 1838.