Merremia quinquefolia (L.) Haller f.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Convolvulaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Herbaceous twining or creeping vine to 3 m long, manybranched from base, producing watery sap; stems cylindrical, slender, covered with long, stiff, yellowish hairs or glabrous. Leaves 5-palmately compound, chartaceous; leaflets 2-7 x 0.5- 1.2 cm, elliptic or lanceolate, glabrous, with serrate margins and acuminate-mucronate apex, with tapering base; petioles slender, 1-3 cm long, hispid or glabrous. Flowers solitary or on simple, axillary dichasia; peduncle as long as the petioles, covered with minute, glandular hairs; bracts minute. Calyx green, ca. 1 cm long, the sepals glabrous, unequal; corolla funnel-shaped, white to light yellow, ca. 2-2.2 cm long, the limb slightly reflexed, with obtuse lobes; stamens and stigma light yellow, included. Capsule nearly globose, 0.7-1 cm long, straw-colored, with persistent sepals covering most of the fruit. Seeds obtusely 3-angled, ca. 3 mm long, black, with woolly, whitish hairs.
Distribution and Ecology - A common weed, found in open areas. Cruz Bay (A3081), Fish Bay (A3895), Lind Point (A2296). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda; throughout tropical America.