Tournefortia maculata Jacq.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro. 2005. Vines and climbing plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 51: 1-483.
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Family
Boraginaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Vine or clambering or arcuate subshrub, 2-5 m in length. Stems cylindrical, glabrous, not lenticellate. Leaves alternate; blades 5-12 (16) x 2.8-8 cm, elliptical, oblong, ovate, broadly ovate, or lanceolate, chartaceous or membranaceous, the apex acute, the base rounded, acute, or sometimes unequal, the margins entire; upper surface glabrous, shiny, with a prominent midvein; lower surface glabrous, shiny with the venation slightly prominent; petioles 1-1.8 cm long. Flowers numerous, pedicellate, in cymes with scorpioid branches, terminal, with puberulous axes. Calyx green, crateriform, 2-3 mm long, the sepals ovate or lanceolate, puberulous; corolla yellow, infundibuliform, 5-6 mm long, puberulous or glabrescent outside, minutely pubescent-papillose inside, the lobes subulate, long-acuminate, slightly re flexed; stamens inserted, the filaments very short, the anthers apiculate at the apex. Drupes depressed-globose, 2-4-lobed, ca. 8 mm in diameter, orange, sometimes with 2 or 4 circular black spots.
Phenology - Flowering from February to August and fruiting from March to August.
Conservation Status - Native, locally common.
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Discussion
The populations of this species in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have been considered as a distinct species (T. laurifolia) based on the relative length of the corolla lobes. Nevertheless, this character is very variable across the range of distribution of T. maculata, and therefore the recognition of these populations at the species level is not justified.
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Common Names
bejuco de masa