Dalechampia
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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
Euphorbiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Monoecious, herbaceous, twining vines, or less often subshrubs, sometimes with stinging hairs, producing scanty watery latex. Leaves simple, alternate, 3-5-lobed; stipules minute. Flowers apetalous, clustered in short cymes, the cymes on a long peduncle, with 2 large foliaceous bracts forming an axillary pseudanthium. Staminate flowers on distal cymules; bractlets modified into resinous glands; calyx of 4-6 valvate lobes; stamens numerous, clustered on a short stipe into a globose head, the anthers short, opening along longitudinal slits; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers on proximal cymules, subtended by a bract; calyx of 8-12 lobes with glandular margins; ovary 3-lobed, of 3 uniovular carpels, the styles united, the stigmas peltate. Fruit a 3-lobed capsule with 1 seed per locule, with persistent calyx lobes, often bearing stinging hairs.