Passiflora nigradenia Rusby
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Authority
Rusby, Henry H. 1927. Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Plants Collected on the Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Valley 1921-1922. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 7: 205-387.
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Family
Passifloraceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Glabrous. Stems high-climbing, the branchlets stout, terete. Petioles to 4 cm. long, stout, strongly channeled, bearing 2 large black sessile glands just above the middle. Mature blades to 2 dm. long and 8 cm. broad, oblong or slightly broader below, with rounded or subtruncate base, the summit very abruptly contracted into a short acute point, the margin entire, thinly revolute; coriaceous, the upper surface slightly shining, the slender venation sharply prominent beneath, the secondaries 10 or 12 on each side, falcate-ascending, connected by a coarse anastomosis of the tertiaries. Flowers racemose, the racemes sometimes bearing as many as 10 flowTers, and shortly peduncled. Pedicels 3 cm. long, terete. Bracts borne close to the flower, sessile, nearly 3 cm. long and half as wide, ovate or oval, obtuse, bearing a pair of marginal glands close to the summit. Basal annulus of calyx slightly umbilicate, 1.5 cm. broad, sharply contracted into the calyx-tube, which is 1 cm. long. Calyx-lobes 3 cm. long, 12 mm. broad, lance-oblong, acutish, fleshy. Corolla two thirds the length of the calyx, the petals thin, about 1 cm. broad, lance-ovate, obtuse. Bases of petals and calyx-lobes bearing on their inner face a rather sparse circle of erect fleshy setae about 1 cm. long, of whitish color, transversely barred with black. Ligules of the crown very numerous and densely massed, about as long as the calyx, 3 or 4 mm. wide, flat, obtuse, colored like the setae above described, their connate portion about a fourth of the total length, and shortly fringed upon its inner surface. Gynostegium stout, 1.5 to 2 cm. long. Free portion of filaments about 1 cm. long, erect, strongly flattened. Anthers 1 cm. long, oblong, attached below the middle, becoming reflexed and inverted. Ovary shortly stipitate above the filaments, ellipsoidal, 7 or 8 mm. long. Style thick, half as long as the ovary, the two large globose stigmas coherent. Stipe of fruit 2 cm. long above the bracts, stout, annulate. Fruit nearly 1 dm. long, 8 cm. broad, regularly ellipsoid but umbilicate at the base, glabrous, edible, the epicarp soft.
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Distribution
Kurrenabaque, 1,000 feet, H. H. Rusby, December 1921 (without number). Species very near P. riparia Mart, for which it was at first mistaken. It appears to produce the largest edible fruit known in the genus, and one that is highly esteemed by the natives of the region where it grows.
Bolivia South America|