Batocydia unguis (L.) Mart.

• Title

  Batocydia unguis (L.) Mart.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Batocydia unguis (L.) Mart.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Batocydia Unguis Liana uñada Cat-claw Family Bignoniaceae Trumpet-creeper Family Bignonia Unguis Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 623. 1753. Doxantha Unguis Miers, Proceedings of the Royal Horticultural Society 3: 190. 1863. Batocydia Unguis Martins; Britton, Memoirs of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 1: 90. 1918. Remarkably specialized for climbing on trees, this long, woody, slender vine is very conspicuous and elegant, when in bloom, by its large, bright yellow flowers, and is occasionally planted. In Porto Rico it is frequent in the dry, southern districts, and occasionally elsewhere, locally ascending to middle elevations, flowering most profusely in the winter months, it is widely distributed in tropical America, occurring nearly throughout the West Indies, Jamaica excepted, and on the mainland from northern Mexico to Brazil and Paraguay. The genus Batocydia (Greek, glorious bramble) appears to be monotypic, consisting of one species only, differentiated from the numerous other kinds of vines of the (Trumpet-creeper Family by the characteristic 3-forked leaf-tendrils of the young leaves, each fork bearing a small, horny hook; by means of these peculiar organs the plant firmly attaches itself to trees, and sometimes ascends them to a height of from 10 to 15 meters. Why this vine is thus provided, and its relatives not, may only be conjectured; many of them have leaf-tendrils, but without the hooks. The Spanish name Uña de gato is also used for it, and all its names refer to these specialized structures. Batocydia Unguis is smooth, or nearly so. Its stalked, opposite leaves have 2, untoothed, broad, thin leaflets from 3 to 6 centimeters long, and the slender, forked tendril, which occupies the position of a third leaflet, and may, perhaps, be a highly modified representation of such a leaflet. The flowers, often numerous, are solitary or few together in the leaf-axils; the membranous, nearly bell-shaped calyx is strongly veined, oblique, greenish, from 10 to 16 millimeters long; the funnelform, bell-shaped corolla is from 5 to 8 centimeters long, with 5, broad, slightly unequal lobes; there are 4 perfect stamens in 2 pairs, and a longer, imperfect one (staminodium); the ovary contains many ovules, the style is very slender, the stigma oblong. The fruit is a slender capsule, from 30 to 40 centimeters long, 12 to 14 millimeters wide, and splits longitudinally when ripe, releasing the flat seeds, which are 2 or 3 centimeters long, thin-winged at both ends.