Cydista aequinoctialis (L.) Miers

• Title

  Cydista aequinoctialis (L.) Miers

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Cydista aequinoctialis (L.) Miers

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Cydista aequinoctialis Bejuco blanco Guard Withe Family Bignoniaceae Trumpet-creeper Family Bignonia aequinoctialis Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 623. 1753. Bignonia spectabilis Vahl, Symbolae Botanicae 3; 80. 1794. Cydista aequinoctialis Miers, Proceedings of the Royal Horticultural Society 3: 191. 1863. Elegant when in bloom by often abundant, large, white, or purplish flowers, this is one of the most attractive, native, woody vines of our Flora, well deserving planting for ornament, and well named Cydista (Greek for wonderful). It grows naturally in moist or wet districts at lower elevations in Porto Rico, the locality of highest elevation recorded being near Juncos, at perhaps 200 meters. The name Liana de la sierra, also recorded for it, does not apply well here, but it grows in mountain regions in other parts of its range, which extends from Cuba, through Haiti, Santo Domingo and the Virgin Islands, from Guadeloupe to Trinidad and on the continent from Central Mexico to Brazil. The genus is, apparently, monotypic. Cydista aequinoctialis (equatorial, first known botanically from French Guiana) may grow to a length of 8 meters or more; it is smooth, with 4-sided branches. The leaves are slender-stalked, and composed of 2 leaflets, with or without a slender tendril; the leaflets are ovate, or ovate-elliptic, firm in texture, pointed, from 7 to 15 centimeters long, minutely scaly when young, without teeth, and borne on stalks from 1 to 2 centimeters long. The flowers are borne in loose clusters about 20 centimeters long, or shorter, on stalks from 8 to 25 millimeters long; the bell-shaped calyx is minutely toothed, about 8 millimeters long; the corolla is between bell-shaped and funnelform, 7 or 8 centimeters long, its 5, rounded lobes about 2 centimeters broad; there are 4 perfect stamens in 2 pairs, shorter than the corolla, and a small, imperfect one (staminodium); the narrow ovary is stalkless, and contains many ovules; the long style is topped by a pointed stigma. The pod is from 20 to 30 centimeters long, flat, about 1 centimeter wide, at length splitting into 2 valves, releasing the many, winged seeds.