Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 157
1. Rourea surinamensis Miq., Linnaea 26: 221.
1853.
Fig. 62. A-H
SYNONYMS: Rourea frutescens sensu Bello, non Aubl.
Rourea glabra sensu Griseb., non Kunth
Juan caliente, Bejuco de garrote
Woody vine, twining, attaining more than 20
m in length. Stems strong, flexible, grayish or
brown, up to 2 cm in diameter; lateral branches
short, twining like tendrils. Leaves alternate,
pinnately compound or less frequently
unifoliolate; leaflets 3 or 5, opposite or
subopposite, 4-15 × 1.5-6.5 cm, elliptical, oblong,
or ovate, coriaceous, glabrous, the apex
acuminate, the base rounded (or in young plants
cordiform), the margins entire, revolute; upper
surface dark, shiny, with the midvein sunken, the
secondary veins slightly prominent; lower surface
pale green, dull, with the reticulate venation
prominent; petioles 3-8 cm long, with the base
swollen; petiolules swollen, ca. 5 mm long;
stipules minute. Flowers numerous, in clustered,
axillary panicles or racemes, 5-10 cm long. Calyx
crateriform, 2.5-3 mm long, of 5 oblong sepals,
ca. 2 mm long; petals white, spathulate, ca. 4 mm
long, early deciduous; stamens 10, in two series,
the filaments unequal, the anthers ellipsoid;
gynoecium of 5 free carpels, pubescent, the style
elongate, the stigma peltate or bilobed. Follicles
ellipsoid, 1-1.5 cm long, reddish when mature;
seeds black, with a white aril at the base.
Phenology: Flowering from March to
September and fruiting from December to April.
Status: Native, rather common.
Distribution: in mature or secondary moist
forests, at middle elevations. Also in Hispaniola,
the Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, the Guianas, and
eastern Venezuela.
Public forests: El Yunque and Río Abajo.
Reference: Forero, E. 1976. A revision of the American species of Rourea subgenus Rourea
(Connaraceae). Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 26: 1-119.
18. Family CONVOLVULACEAE
Key to the genera
1a. Flowers arranged in panicles; corolla white, 4-6 mm long......................................... 8. Poranopsis
1b. Flowers solitary or in simple or compound cymes; corolla of diverse colors, when white they exceed
2.5 cm long, when violet-pink, lavender, or yellow they are ca. 5 mm long................................... 2
2a. Stigmas globose, subglobose, biglobose, or bilobate. ....................................................................... 3
2b. Stigmas elongate (filiform or oblong). ............................................................................................ 11
3a. Sepals conspicuously unequal, the outer ones broader, concealing the inner ones .......... 1. Aniseia
3b. Sepals more or less equal or slightly unequal, the outer ones usually smaller than the inner ones.........4
4a. Fruits indehiscent, irregularly dehiscent or dardily dehiscent by the dissolution of the pericarp. . 5
4b. Fruits capsular, 4-valvate, sometimes with the exocarp operculate. ................................................ 9
5a. Lower surface of the leaves densely pubescent; axes of the inflorescences densely pubescent or
tomentose. ........................................................................................................................................... 6
5b. Lower surface of the leaves and axes of the inflorescences glabrous or puberulous; fruits indehiscent
or irregularly or tardily dehiscent, fibrous or crustaceous. ............................................................... 7
6a. Fruit indehiscent, fleshy, covered by the accrescent sepals; corolla violet-pink ............ 2. Argyreia
6b. Fruit with the exocarp separating like an operculum, endocarp opening irregularly, sepals not
covering the fruit; corolla white or white with a yellow center .................................. 7. Operculina