Monographs Details:
Authority:
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Family:
Petiveriaceae
Petiveriaceae
Description:
Species Description - Erect subshrub or herb, 50-60 cm tall, usually many-branched, from a taproot, all parts with strong fetid smell (especially the leaves); stems slender, angled to cylindrical, puberulent to glabrous, striate. Leaf blades 5-12 X 2.3-3.5 cm, elliptic to obovate, chartaceous, sparsely puberulent, the venation whitish, especially underneath, the apex obtuse, acute, or shortly acuminate, the base obtuse or attenuate, the margins entire to wavy; petioles 6-10 mm long; stipules subulate, filiform, 3-4 mm long. Flowers sessile alternate in a terminal or axillary spike; bracts lanceolate, persistent. Tepals 4, oblong-lanceolate, nearly free to base, whitish or greenish, 2.5-3 mm long; stamens 6-8, the filaments free, unequal, the anther locules separating; ovary superior, l-locular, tomentose, the locule with a single basal ovule, the stigma sessile, finely branched. Fruit a wedge-shaped achene, bilobed at apex, each lobe with 2 or 3 retrorse hooks, 7-8 mm long.
Species Description - Erect subshrub or herb, 50-60 cm tall, usually many-branched, from a taproot, all parts with strong fetid smell (especially the leaves); stems slender, angled to cylindrical, puberulent to glabrous, striate. Leaf blades 5-12 X 2.3-3.5 cm, elliptic to obovate, chartaceous, sparsely puberulent, the venation whitish, especially underneath, the apex obtuse, acute, or shortly acuminate, the base obtuse or attenuate, the margins entire to wavy; petioles 6-10 mm long; stipules subulate, filiform, 3-4 mm long. Flowers sessile alternate in a terminal or axillary spike; bracts lanceolate, persistent. Tepals 4, oblong-lanceolate, nearly free to base, whitish or greenish, 2.5-3 mm long; stamens 6-8, the filaments free, unequal, the anther locules separating; ovary superior, l-locular, tomentose, the locule with a single basal ovule, the stigma sessile, finely branched. Fruit a wedge-shaped achene, bilobed at apex, each lobe with 2 or 3 retrorse hooks, 7-8 mm long.
Discussion:
Common names: Congo root, gully root, strong man bush
Distribution:
Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|
Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|