A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

CONVOLVULACEAE 381
cm long. Flowers lilac-purple, about 1 cm in diameter, 10 to 12 or more
in each umbel, the corolla rotate, the lobes broadly triangular-ovate, glabrous
outside, inside densely papillose-pubescent. Capsules about 12 cm long.
In dry ravines opposite Guadalupe, rare, sometimes cultivated, fl. June;
known only from Luzon and of every local occurrence.
10. DISCHIDIA R. Brown
Slender, usually epiphytic, twining or pendulous vines, climbing and
rooting on trees. Leaves usually opposite, sometimes all flat, sometimes
some of them converted into pitchers, or in some species all leaves convex and
sessile, closely appressed to the surface on which the plant grows. Flowers
small, white, yellow, or red, in axillary racemes, umbels, cymes, or fascicles,
the peduncles usually thickened and marked with numerous scars. Calyx
5-partite, glandular within. Corolla campanulate, tubular, or urceolate,
usually contracted at the mouth, the lobes valvate. Corona of 5 membrana-
ceous processes adnate to the back of the staminal-column, erect, entire,
notched, or bifid at the tips, or with incurved or recurved arms. Filaments
connate into a very short tube; anthers with membranaceous appendages;
pollen-masses 1 in each cell. Ovary of 2 carpels. Fruit of 1 or 2 small,
slender, acuminate follicles; seeds comose. (Greek "two" and "cleft" in
allusion to the cleft corona-segments.)
Species 60 or more, India to New Guinea and Australia, about 15 in the
Philippines.
1. D. pectenoides Pearson. Dapo-boho (Tag.).
An herbaceous, epiphytic, glabrous vine usually growing on dead bamboo,
the branches slender, pendulous, often twining. Leaves of two kinds, oppo-
site, normal ones elliptic-ovate to lanceolate, acuminate, thick, fleshy, 1.5 to
2.5 cm long, one of some pairs hollow inside, inflated, 4 to 6 cm long, 4 to 5
cm wide, usually about 2 cm thick, the interior more or less filled with root-
lets from the leaf-axil and with a much smaller interior ascidium usually the
domicil of a colony of small black ants. Inflorescence axillary, solitary, umbellate,
the peduncle 1 to 2 cm long. Flowers 3 to 8 in each umbel, the
calyx small, green, the corolla cylindric, red, apex narrowed, about 8 mm
long. Follicles slender, 5 to 7 cm long.
Not infrequently brought in from the neighboring provinces and cultivated
in Manila; very curious on account of its symbiosis with ants, fl. most
of the year. Known only from Luzon.
118. CONVOLVULACEAE (MORNING Glory or
Camote Family)
Slender, spreading or prostrate herbs, or twining herbaceous or woody
vines, sometimes with milky sap, with alternate, simple, entire or lobed,
exstipulate leaves. Flowers axillary, solitary or cymose, regular, perfect,
often large and showy, bracteate. Sepals 5, imbricate, usually persistent,
often accrescent. Corolla campanulate, salver-shaped, or urceolate, rarely
subrotate, the limb with 5 short or long lobes, often plicate in bud. Stamens
5, adnate to the corolla-tube. Ovary superior, of 2 usually connate
carpels, often surrounded by an annular or lobed disk; ovules 2 in each
carpel; style 1, rarely 2. Fruit an indehiscent, often dry berry, or a
2- to 4-valved, circumscissile, or irregularly dehiscent capsule. Seeds 2
or 4.