Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

160
Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
Phenology: Collected in flower in February
and April and in fruit from December to February
and in July.
Status: Native, uncommon.
2. ARGYREIA
3. CONVOLVULUS
Distribution: In marshy areas near Laguna
Tortuguero and at the mouth of the Humacao
River. Throughout the Neotropics.
Public forest: Tortuguero.
Twining lianas. Leaves alternate, petiolate; blades simple; stipules absent. Inflorescences of simple
dichasial cymes. Flowers 5-merous, bisexual, with actinomorphic symmetry. Calyx of 5 sepals, variable
in shape and size, usually pubescent and accrescent in fruit; corolla purple, pink, or white,
infundibuliform, campanulate, or tubular, the limb almost entire to deeply 5-lobed; stamens 5, inserted
or exserted; ovary superior, glabrous or pubescent, 2-4-locular, the style solitary, inserted or exserted,
the stigma biglobose. Fruits indehiscent, ellipsoid to globose, fleshy, red, orange, or yellowish; seeds 4
or fewer per fruit. A genus of 90 species native to continental tropical Asia, Malaysia, and northern
Australia; the following species is cultivated in the New World.
1. Argyreia nervosa (Burm. f.) Bojer, Hort.
Maurit. 224. 1837.
Fig. 63. E-F
BASIONYM: Convolvulus nervosus Burm. f.
SYNONYMS: Rivea nervosa (Burm. f.) H. Hallier
Argyreia speciosa (L.f.) Sweet
Twining liana, without latex, attaining more
than 5 m in length. Stems cylindrical, densely
canescent when young, becoming glabrous when
mature. Leaves alternate; blades simple, 12-22
(27) × 8.5-20 cm, cordiform, coriaceous, the apex
obtuse to rounded, sometimes mucronate, the base
cordiform, the margins entire; upper surface dark,
dull, glabrous, with the venation slightly sunken;
lower surface densely canescent, with the pinnate
venation prominent; petioles 5-15 cm long,
densely canescent. Flowers few, in axillary simple
or double dichasial cymes; bracts foliaceous,
ovate, acuminate, 2-5 cm long, canescent on the
lower surface, forming an involucre at the base
of the dichasia; peduncles densely canescent, up
to 15 cm long. Calyx crateriform, canescent,
accrescent, of 5 ovate sepals, obtuse, mucronate,
1.5-2 cm long; corolla lavender, dark violet in
the throat, infundibuliform, 6-6.5 cm long,
canescent outside, the limb with 5 slightly
prominent, rounded lobes; stamens and style not
exserted. Indehiscent fruits ovoid, 1-1.5 cm long,
puberulous, the pericarp thick, subtended by the
subwoody, persistent sepals, slightly shorter than
the fruit; seeds light brown, ca. 5 mm long,
densely appressed short-pubescent, with two sides
flat and one convex, the hilum forming a navel.
Phenology: Flowering from April to August,
collected in fruit in November.
Status: Exotic, cultivated in Puerto Rico and
the Virgin Islands, uncommon.
Distribution: Native to India, cultivated and
naturalized in the Antilles and throughout the
tropics.
Erect or prostrate herbs, shrubs, or twining vines. Leaves alternate, petiolate; blades simple, entire
or lobed; stipules absent. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, solitary or clustered in involucrate heads.
Calyx of 5 equal or unequal sepals; corolla campanulate or infundibuliform, the limb slightly 5-lobed;
stamens 5, exserted; ovary superior, with a solitary style and 2 filiform stigmas. Fruit a 4-valvate
capsule, with each of the valves opening in two; seeds 4 per fruit, with two sides flat and one convex.
A genus of about 250 species, mostly native to the Old World.