Manihot Manihotoides (Euphorbiaceae) - CNCFlora

20 Flora Neotropica
Leaves alternate, subsessile to long-petiolate, simple, nonlobed or palmately lobed in
varying numbers and depth of lobing; young leaves green, bluish green to deep purple;
stipules setaceous, caducous or persistent, margins entire, serrulate or dentate; petioles
projected horizontally, at an angle, vertically, or, in some cases, drooping; pigmentation
green, yellow-green, reddish-green to solid red; lamina either peltate or with basal
attachment to petiole, lightly membranaceous to coriaceous, orbicular to linear, with
varying depths of lobes from slight indentations to deep, cleft nearly to the midribs, with
frequent variations of lobing within a species; the mature vegetative leaves of most species
lobed, the lobes erect or recurved, linear, elliptic, or obovate, the margins entire, slightly
indented, pandurate or falcate, the lobe number 3, 5, 7, 9 or more, infrequently 4, 6, or
8; leaves associated with the inflorescence generally reduced in number of lobes, or
nonlobed; the mature vegetative leaves of species in sections Brevipetiolatae and Peltatae
not lobed or only very slightly lobed; the midrib usually prominent, the secondary veins
either camptodromous or craspedodromous; the lamina glabrous or glaucous or with
varying degrees of pubescence to tomentose, the abaxial lamina surface with a wax-like
covering of varying patterns from smooth to reticulate, the adaxial surface either glossy
or dull, but never with the same wax pattern exhibited by the abaxial surface.
Inflorescence terminal, rarely axillary, largely monoecious, rarely dioecious, sub-
spicate racemes, racemes or panicles, the pistillate flowers generally borne toward the
base of the peduncles, or rarely admixed with the upper level staminate flowers, with
setaceous, semifoliaceous or foliaceous bracts and bracteoles subtending the peduncles
and pedicels, the bracts and bracteoles caducous or persistent, with entire, serrulate,
serrate or laciniate margins.
Flowers with a single perianth of free or united tepals, relatively small, from ca 0.5
to 2.0 cm length, greenish, yellow-green to red or purplish; buds of staminate flowers
ovoid, ellipsoid or bifusiform in outline, buds of pistillate flowers generally ovoid,
sometimes somewhat elongate-ovoid; pistillate flowers protogynous, the tepals 5, glabrous
or pubescent either both internally and externally, or on one surface only, free, ligulate,
caducous; pistil with 3 carpellate, superior ovary, one anatropous ovule per carpel; the
ovary subtended by a fleshy yellow, orange or red, smooth or lobed disc, staminodes
sometimes present; the style short, the trifid stigma smooth or lobulate; staminate flowers
urceolate, campanulate or infundibuliform, the tepals united for ca 1/2 their length, the 5
lobes erect, slightly to pronouncedly reflexed, glabrous or pubescent either internally and
externally, or on one surface only; disc of staminate flowers lobed or smooth, the
filaments arising beneath, or at the margins of, the lobes; stamens 10 (rarely 8) in two
whorls of 5 each, the inner longer or shorter than the outer whorl, the filaments slender,
with anther attachment versatile; the anthers bithecate, the thecae opening longitudinally;
pollen grains large, viscid, with prominent peg-like extensions of the exine.
Fruit a capsule, with septicidal dehiscence, frequently with loculicidal dehiscence as
well; the fruits globular, ellipsoid or conical, sometimes the distal end depressed; either
winged or smooth, sometimes both within the same species.
Seeds typically euphorbiaceous, with a more or less developed caruncle at the
micropylar end, gray, brown, or mottled in varying degrees; the copious endosperm
closely investing the embryo and the thin, flat cotyledons.
Chromosome numbers in all species counted uniformly 2n=36.
I LLUSTRATIONS. See figures associated with Table I.
TYPE. Lectotype Fig 4 & 5 in Merian, Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus
insectorum Surinamensium. 1726. (Lectotype of Manihot esculenta Crantz
selected by Rogers & Appan in accordance with Article 9 of the International Code of
Botanical Nomenclature. Crantz, while describing Manihot esculenta, does not cite any
specimen but cites Merian's figures.
DISTRIBUTION. (Fig 3, 4).