Mikania odoratissima Urb.

• Title

  Mikania odoratissima Urb.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Mikania odoratissima Urb.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Mikania odoratissima Guaco del monte Forest Mikania Family Carduaceae Thistle Family Mikania odoratissima Urban, Symbolae Antillanae 1: 464. 1899. A slender, herbaceous vine, with small, stalked, opposite leaves, and loosely clustered heads of small, white, fragrant flowers; it inhabits woodlands and forests in moist and wet parts of central and western Porto Rico, ascending to the higher elevations. The species is endemic, being restricted in distribution to this island. The genus Mikania, established by the botanist Willdenow in 1804, dedicated to Joseph Gottfried Mikan, professor in Prague, who lived from 1742 to 1814, is composed of about 150 species of vines and shrubs, all natives of America, mostly tropical. They have opposite leaves and small, variously clustered heads of white, or pink flowers. Each head contains only 4 flowers, and the oblong involucre has only 4 bracts; the corollas have a slender tube and a bell-shaped, 5-cleft limb. The 5-angled fruits (achenes) bear a pappus of many hair-like bristles. Mikania odoratissima (very fragrant, but the flowers of other species are also strongly scented) may become at least 1.5 meters long, twining, sparingly hairy when young. The pairs of ovate, thin, pointed leaves are separated by long inter-nodes of the stem and branches; they are 5-nerved, the lower ones about 6 centimeters long, and toothed, the upper much smaller, and without teeth, the flower-heads are numerous, stalked, and loosely clustered; the involucre is about 7 millimeters long, with narrowly oblong bracts. The achenes are smooth. Six other species of Mikania are indigenous in Porto Rico.