atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

ounded or cuneate and attenuate, crenate, doubly crenate to laciniate, scabrid to
subglabrous, variegated, highly ornamental, variously colored, green, red, purple, yellow
or white; petioles, 1 to 8 cm long, slender; inflorescences, erect terminal racemes or
panicles, 5 to 40 cm long, bearing whorls (verticils) at intervals; bracts, 4 by 5 mm,
ovate, long-acuminate, deciduous; pedicels, 3 to 4 mm long; calyx, 2 to 4 mm long and
2 to 3 mm wide, enlarging to 7 mm long in fruit, bilabiate, obliquely campanulate,
pubescent and gland-dotted, 10-nerved; corolla, 8 to 18 mm, long, infundibular, blue to
purple or mauve, the tube, about 5 mm long, paler, puberulent, abruptly decurved, the
upper lip about 1.5 mm long, erect, the lower lip deeply concave, up to 6 mm long;
stamens 4; fruit, nutlets, 0.75 to 1.2 mm long, lenticular to broadly ovoid or subglobose,
brown, smooth, glossy. Planted ornamental and pot plant. 5, 6, 7.
LAURACEAE (Laurel Family)
Cassytha filiformis L. "beach dodder", "giant dodder", "devil's twine"
denuwanini, denuwenini, eduwinini (B)(N); te ntanini (K); fetai (T)
Indigenous. Pantropical. Abundant. Slender, filiform, branching, twining or
climbing light green to yellowish-green or yellowish-orange, glabrous parasitic herb, up
to 3 to 8 m long, attaching to host plants by means of sucker-like haustoria, often
forming sense, tangled mats; leaves, alternate, spirally arranged, reduced to minute
scales; inflorescences, erect solitary pedunculate spike-like clusters, 1.5 to 5 cm long,
borne in the axils of minute bracts; rachis, rather thick, glabrous, finely brown-hairy;
bracts and bracteoles ovate-circular; flowers, bisexual, the perianth greenish-white to
yellowish-white, somewhat fleshy, tepals 6, white, the 3 outer tepals, connate, broadly
ovate-circular, about 0.75 mn across, the 3 inner ones broadly ovate, glabrous, 2 to 2.5
mm long; stamens 9; staminodes, few, yellow; fruit, 4 to 7.5 mm in diameter, subglob-
ose, white when mature, enclosed in a fleshy perianth tube, 1-seeded; seed with a
membranaceous or coriaceous testa. Parasite on other plants, found generally on natural
vegetation at all elevations. Entire plant used as garlands and headbands; plant used for
"black magic" by I Kiribati and other islanders, a practice occasionally copied by
Nauruans; tender tips used at times in the past for scenting coconut oil; fruit eaten by
children in the past. 2(23.5), 3(58590), 4(163N), 5(6), 6, 7, 8(9566).
Persea americana Mill. "avocado", "avocado pear", "alligator pear"
syns. Laurus persea L. ; Persea gratissima Gaertn . f.
- - R e r P n t i ~ i e R - W ~ R~E. - Mediutnlarge-evergreen_-,up-to_ 12m
or taller; leaves, 7 to 30 cm long and 2.5 to 20 cm wide, alternate and spirally arranged,
elliptic, ovate-oblong or obovate-oblong, acute-acuminate, chartaceous to somewhat
coriaceous, glaucous beneath, downy when young, nerves alternate, pinnate, prominent;
petioles, 1.5 to 5 cm long; inflorescences, axillary many-flowered downy panicles