Serjania polyphylla (L.) Radlk.

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Sapindaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Serjania polyphylla Radlk.

  • Description

    Species Description - Liana 5-10 m long, usually many-branched from base, all parts, especially stems, producing milky latex; stems cylindric or angled, furrowed, in cross section with a central vascular cylinder surrounded by 5-10 vascular cylinders. Leaves biternate. triternate, or bipinnate; leaflets 1.5-8 x 1-3 cm, subcoriaceous, glabrous, elliptic, ovate, or lanceolate, lower surface with tufts of hairs in the axils of secondary veins, the apex acute, obtuse, or acuminate, the base tapering or obtuse, the margins remotely serrate; petioles not winged, 1-3 cm long; rachis winged or not. Flowers functionally staminate or pistillate, in axillary thyrses. Sepals 5, unequal, oblong, pubescent, ca. 4 mm long; petals 4, white, obovate or spatulate, ca. 5 mm long, with a hood-shaped appendage bearing a fleshy, yellow apex; nectary disk divided into 4 ovoid glands; stamens ca. 5 mm long, the filaments pubescent, the anthers lanceolate; ovary 3-carpellate, the styles slender, with 3 recurved stigmas. Mericarps 1.5-2.2 cm long, straw-colored, the seed locule globose. Seeds globose, ca. 5 m diam.

    Distribution and Ecology - A common liana of open disturbed areas in moist to dry environments. Cmz Bay Quarter near Lind Point (A2313), East End Quarter by Southside Pond (A1828). Also on Anegada, St. Croix, Tortola; Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, including Vieques.

  • Discussion

    Paullinia triternata Jacq., Select. Stirp. Amer. Hist. 110, t. 180. 1763. Serjania triternata (Jacq.) Willd., Sp. PL 2: 466. 1799.

    Serjania lucida Schum., Skr. Naturhist.-Selsk. 3(2): 128. 1794.

    Common names: basket wiss, basket wood, black wist, cabrite rotting, white root, white wist .