Adenoropium gossypiifolium (L.) Pohl

• Title

  Adenoropium gossypiifolium (L.) Pohl

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Adenoropium gossypiifolium (L.) Pohl

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Adenoropium gossypifolium Higuerita cimarrona Wild Cassada Family Euphorbiaceae Spurge family Jatropha gossypifolia Linnaeus, Species Plantaruun 1006. 1753. Adenoropium gossypifolium Pohl, Plantarum Brasiliae Icones 1: 16. 1827. A branched, herbaceous plant, frequent at lower and middle altitudes in Porto Rico, growing on hillsides, in fields, and in waste and cultivated grounds, observed also on the islands Desecheo and Vieques. It has broad, deeply parted or lobed leaves, and rather dense clusters of deep purple flowers. The distribution of this species is nearly throughout tropical America, north to Florida, and it sometimes becomes a weed. Tua-tua is another popular name. Adenoropium (Greek, glandular bush) a genus established by the Austrian botanist Pohl in 1827, in his noteworthy volumes describing and illustrating plants of Brazil, includes 80 species, or more, of tropical and subtropical distribution. They are herbs, shrubs, or small trees, with alternate leaves, and imperfect flowers in broad clusters, the staminiate and pistillate on the same plant (monoecious), rarely on different plants (dioecious). The staminate flowers are mostly borne in the upper parts of the clusters, and have a corolla-like, 5-lobed calyx, 5 petals, and several or many stamens; the pistillate flowers are on the lower parts of the clusters with similar calyx, and a 3-celled ovary with one ovule in each cell, ripening into ovoid or globose, capsular fruits, which separate into 2-valved carpels. Adenoropium gossypifolium (leaves similar to those of some kinds of cotton) is a stout, upright herb from 0.6 to 1 meter in height.The leaves are stalked, from 3-lobed to 5-lobed, or 3-parted to 5-parted, from 5 to 20 centimeters broad, smooth, or more or less hairy, the segments ovate and pointed, sometimes toothed, the margins commonly fringed with glandular hairs. The flower-clusters are rather dense, from 2 to 7 centimeters broad; the calyx is about 4 millimeters long, the corolla about twice as long; the staminate flowers have from 8 to 12 stamens; in the pistillate flowers the styles are 2-forked. The capsule is 3-grooved, flattened at both ends, about 10 millimeters in diameter. Another species, Adenoropium multifidum, is also illustrated in this work.