Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 217
Public forests: Cambalache, El Yunque,
Maricao, Mona, Río Abajo, Susúa, and Vega.
Commentary: Momordica charantia has at least
three forms that are cultivated for their edible
fruits. These are known as “bitter melon” and
12. PSIGURIA
“bitter gourd” and may attain up to 60 cm long.
In Puerto Rico the wild form, not a cultivated
one, is found, although there exists one
collection (Sintenis 919), made in 1885, with
fruits ca. 15 cm long, apparently from a
cultivated plant.
Herbaceous vines, monoecious or dioecious, climbing by simple axillary or lateral tendrils, without
latex. Leaves alternate, petiolate; blades simple, entire, palmatilobed or 3-5-foliolate; stipules absent.
Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic; calyx campanulate or infundibuliform, with 5 minute lobes; corolla
campanulate or rotate. Staminate flowers in axillary cymes with elongate peduncles; stamens 2, sessile,
inserted on the tube of the receptacle, the anthers free, linear, the connective prolonged into an appendage;
pistillodes absent. Pistillate flowers solitary or in groups of 2-4; staminodia 2, minute; ovary inferior,
oblong, bicarpellate, with numerous horizontal ovules, the style terminal, simple, the stigmas 2, bifurcate.
Fruit a cylindrical or ovoid berry, quadrangular or sulcate; seeds numerous, compressed, oblong. A
neotropical genus of about 12 species, distributed from Mexico to Paraguay, including the Antilles.
Key to the species of Psiguria
1a. Leaves 3-lobed. .................................................................................................................................. 2
1b. Leaves 3-5-foliolate. .......................................................................................................................... 3
2a. Calyx of the staminate flowers urceolate, with deltate lobes; corolla papillose outside; anthers
broadly lanceolate............................................................................................................. 2. P. pedata
2b. Calyx of the staminate flowers cylindrical, with lanceolate-acuminate lobes; corolla puberulous
outside; anthers subulate ............................................................................................. 1. P. ottoniana
3a. Pistillate flowers solitary or in pairs; calyx cylindrical-urceolate, ca. 12 mm long; petals 6-7 mm
long ....................................................................................................................... 2. P. pedata
3b. Pistillate flowers in groups of 2-4, axillary; calyx fusiform, 3-3.2 cm long; petals ca. 2.8 cm long
............................................................................................................................. 3. P. trifoliata
1. Psiguria ottoniana (Schltdl.) C. Jeffrey, Kew
Bull. 33: 352. 1978.
Fig. 87. A-B
BASIONYM: Anguria ottoniana Schltdl.
Herbaceous vine, attaining 3 m in length and
climbing by axillary tendrils. Stems slender,
glabrous; tendrils simple, filiform, ca. 15 cm long.
Leaves alternate; blades 9-17 × 8-17 cm, deeply
3-5-lobed, glabrous, the lobes acute or acuminate,
mucronate, the base deeply cordiform, the margins
entire, bidentate toward the apex of the lobe;
petioles ca. 3.5 cm long, slender, glabrous.
Staminate flowers 3-8, in axillary racemes;
peduncle longer than the accompanying leaf;
calyx green, cylindrical, slightly dilated at the
base, the lobes lanceolate-acuminate; corolla
orange, the lobes oblong, acute at the apex,
puberulous outside; anthers subulate. Pistillate
flowers and fruits unknown.
Phenology: Unknown.
Status: Native, known from Puerto Rico from
a single collection (Plée 42) at the beginning of
the 19th century. This collection was identified
by Cogniaux, in his time a specialist in the
Cucurbitaceae, and is found deposited in the
Museum of Natural History in Paris.
Distribution: Its distribution in Puerto Rico is
unknown, since the collection of Plée did not
include the specific locality. It is also found in
Cuba and the Bahamas (according to Jeffrey and
Trujillo, 1992).