Dorstenia ramosa (Desv.) Carauta, C.Valente & Sucre

  • Authority

    Berg, Cornelius C. 2001. Moreae, Artocarpeae, and (Moraceae): With introductions to the family and and with additions and corrections to Flora Neotropica Monograph 7. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 83: 1-346. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Moraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Dorstenia ramosa (Desv.) Carauta, C.Valente & Sucre

  • Type

    Type. Brazil. Without locality, Anonymous s.n. in herb. Desvaux s.n. (holotype, P).

  • Synonyms

    Sychinium ramosum Desv., Dorstenia sychinium Steud., Sychinium ramosum Desv., Dorstenia multiformis var. ramosa (Desv.) Bureau

  • Description

    Species Description - Herb, to ca. 1 m tall, rhizomatous; supraterranean part of the stem to 60 cm long, ascending to procumbent, 4-15 mm thick, puberulous with straight hairs; internodes short or to 5 cm long. Leaves in spirals, rosulate or spaced; lamina (suborbicular to) elliptic to oblong to lanceolate, or ovate to subovate, entire and then often constricted in the lower part or pinnately lobed to parted with 5-3(-1) lobes at each side, 16-35 × 6-30 cm, chartaceous; apex acuminate to subacute; base deeply cordate; margin ± irregularly and sometimes faintly, finely to coarsely crenate-dentate; upper surface glabrous or initially sparsely hispidulous; lower surface on the (main) veins puberulous with minute straight hairs and usually also with sparse to rather dense, retrorse, uncinate ones; lateral veins 8-14 pairs, loop-connected; tertiary venation partly scalariform in entire laminas; petiole 17-60 cm long, in the upper part abaxially puberulous; stipules ovate, 0.5-1.5 cm long, faintly plurinervate, ± conspicuously carinate, the apex subacuminate (in dry material ± pungent), the outside rather densely, minutely puberulous, the margin sometimes dentate. Inflorescences purplish; peduncle 9-18 cm long, minutely puberulous; receptacle furcate, with the branches 3.5-17 cm long and to ca. 0.6 cm broad, often unequal in length, the outside minutely puberulous with straight and often also with uncinate hairs, the margin with ca. 2 rows of to 2 cm long filiform appendages of unequal length and minutely puberulous, the fringe to ca. 0.5 mm broad; bracts lacking, or occasionally present on the apices of the marginal appendages; staminate flowers among the pistillate ones; tepals 2; stamens 2; filaments longer than the perianth; stigmas ± unequal in length, 0.1-0.5 mm long. Endocarp body ca. 1.5 × 1 mm, distinctly tuberculate.

  • Discussion

    Dorstenia ramosa can be easily recognized by its peculiar inflorescences, but without them, it can hardly be told apart from D. arifolia.

    The leaves and the variation of the leaves are strikingly similar to those of Dorstenia arifolia, which apparently led to Miquel’s decision (1853) to unite the two species under D. multiformis, a decision accepted by Bureau (1873).

    Two subspecies can be recognized on the basis of quantitative morphological characters and distribution. The material described as Dorstenia capricorniana is more or less intermediate but matches subsp. dolichocaula rather than subsp. ramosa.

    Bracts are normally lacking, but are occasionally present on the shorter appendages (e.g., in Sucre 9991).

  • Distribution

    From Costa Rica to the Pacific Coastal region of Colombia and Ecuador; in wet forest; to ca. 1800 m.

    Costa Rica South America| Colombia South America| Ecuador South America| Panama Central America|