Quamoclit coccinea (L.) Moench

• Title

  Quamoclit coccinea (L.) Moench

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton

• Scientific Name

  Quamoclit coccinea (L.) Moench

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Quamoclit coccinea Cambustera silvestre Small Red Morning-glory Family Convolvulaceae Morning-glory Family Ipomoea coccinea Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 160. 1753. Ipomoea hederaefolia Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, edition 10, 925. 1759. Ipomoea sanguinea Vahl, Symbolae Botanicae 2: 33. 1794. Quamoclit coccinea Mönch. Methodus Plantas Horti Marburgensis 453. 1794. Quite different in aspect from its relative Quamoclit Quamoclit, but with similar flowers and fruits, this broad-leaved, annual vine also has wide distribution nearly throughout tropical America, and ranges north to Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Arizona; in Porto Rico growing in thickets and woodlands, on banks and along streams, mostly at lower elevations. We regard the species as indigenous; it is the type of the genus. The vine is occasionally planted for ornament, as also a hybrid with the Cypress-vine. Coral is another Spanish name. An account of the genus may be found with our description of Quamoclit Quamoclit. Quamoclit coccinea (scarlet flowers), is a smooth, or finely hairy vine, about 2 meters long, or shorter. The deeply heart-shaped, ovate, or nearly orbicular, long-pointed leaves are from 5 to 15 centimeters long, with continuous margins, or angulate-lobed, and usually a heart-shaped base, and slender stalks. The flowers are borne few, or several together on a slender stalk usually not longer than the leaves; the oblong, or ovate, long-tipped sepals are about 4 millimeters long in flower, enlarging in fruit; the corolla varies from 2 to 4 centimeters in length, its spreading limb obscurely 5-lobed. The nearly globular, 4-valved capsule is from 6 to 8 millimeters in diameter. A race with orange flowers was detected by Mrs. Britton at Rio Jueyes, in 1931.