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:
Nyctaginaceae
Nyctaginaceae
Description:
Species Description - Dioecious liana or climbing shrub to 20 m long, many-branched from base; trunk to 7 cm diam., with persistent recurved spines; bark grayish, smooth; branches divaricate, puberulent, and nearly cylindric, becoming glabrous, 4-angled and sulcate, developing recurved axillary spines. Leaves opposite on long, arching branches or congested on short, lateral shoots; blades 6-14 x 3-6 cm, elliptic, ovate, oblong, or rounded, chartaceous, glabrous, the apex obtuse, acute, rounded or shortly acuminate, the base cuneate, obtuse to rounded, the margins slightly wavy; petioles 1-3 cm long. Flowers sessile, clustered in axillary cymes; the axes pubescent; bracts and bracteoles minute, triangular. Staminate perianth nearly bell-shaped, 2.5-3 mm , yellowish, pubescent without, the stamens exserted, with filaments twice as long as the perianth; pistillate perianth ca. 2.5 mm long, nearly tubular, tomentose without, constricted just below the apex, 5-toothed, the stigma many-branched, exserted. Anthocarp ellipsoid, obtusely 5-angled, 10-12 mm long, tomentose, with a row or two of stipitate viscid glands along each angle.
Species Description - Dioecious liana or climbing shrub to 20 m long, many-branched from base; trunk to 7 cm diam., with persistent recurved spines; bark grayish, smooth; branches divaricate, puberulent, and nearly cylindric, becoming glabrous, 4-angled and sulcate, developing recurved axillary spines. Leaves opposite on long, arching branches or congested on short, lateral shoots; blades 6-14 x 3-6 cm, elliptic, ovate, oblong, or rounded, chartaceous, glabrous, the apex obtuse, acute, rounded or shortly acuminate, the base cuneate, obtuse to rounded, the margins slightly wavy; petioles 1-3 cm long. Flowers sessile, clustered in axillary cymes; the axes pubescent; bracts and bracteoles minute, triangular. Staminate perianth nearly bell-shaped, 2.5-3 mm , yellowish, pubescent without, the stamens exserted, with filaments twice as long as the perianth; pistillate perianth ca. 2.5 mm long, nearly tubular, tomentose without, constricted just below the apex, 5-toothed, the stigma many-branched, exserted. Anthocarp ellipsoid, obtusely 5-angled, 10-12 mm long, tomentose, with a row or two of stipitate viscid glands along each angle.
Discussion:
Common name: prickly mampoo.
Distribution:
Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|
Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|