Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 259
9 mm long, retuse at the apex, unguiculate at the
base, the wings and the keel as long as the
standard. Legume uncinate-pubescent, ca. 2.5 cm
long, crenate on both margins, with 6-11 fertile
segments.
Phenology: Collected in flower and fruit
during January and February.
9. DIOCLEA
Status: Native, relatively common.
Distribution: On the edges of forests along the
Cordillera Central. Also in Hispaniola and
Jamaica; southwestern United States, Mexico, and
Central America to Peru.
Public Forest: Toro Negro.
Woody vines, twining, occasionally erect subshrubs. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate; stipels minute;
stipules conspicuous, persistent, or absent. Inflorescences of axillary pseudoracemes, fasciculate, the
flowers grouped on the swellings along the rachis; bracts and bracteoles minute, deciduous. Calyx
campanulate, with 4 lobes, the upper lobe entire or emarginate; corolla purple or rarely white, the
standard reflexed, emarginate, auriculate and usually with 2 callosities at the base, the wings free,
sometimes spurred, the keel distally fused, rostrate; stamens 10, pseudomonadelphous; ovary superior,
villous, stipitate or sessile, with 1 or more ovules, the style flattened or cylindrical, the stigma capitate,
terminal or subterminal. Fruit a linear, oblong, obovate, or almost circular legume, compressed or
turgid, coriaceous or woody, dehiscent or indehiscent; seeds large, compressed to globose, with a linear,
elongate hilum. A genus of about 55 species, distributed throughout the tropics, with the greater number
of species in South America.
1. Dioclea reflexa Hook. f., Niger Fl. 306. 1849.
Fig. 104. A-H
Bejuco de mato, Maya prieta
Woody vine, twining, attainig 10 m in length.
Stems pilose, cylindrical, glabrescent when
mature, attaining 1 cm in diameter. Leaves
alternate, trifoliolate; leaflets 7-16 × 5-10.5 cm
(the terminal leaflet larger than the lateral ones),
elliptical or less frequently oblong, chartaceous,
the apex rounded, usually terminating in a short
apiculus, the base rounded, unequal on the lateral
leaflets, the margins entire or undulate, slightly
revolute; upper surface green, dull, punctate,
strigulose, especially on the midvein, the lateral
veins sunken; lower surface pale green, dull,
strigulose, with prominent pilose venation;
petiolules thickened, 5-6 mm long, pilose; stipels
8-10 mm long, linear; petioles 7-9 cm long,
sulcate, pilose, with the base thickened; stipules
subulate, ca. 1 cm long, sericeous. Inflorescences
of axillary or terminal pseudoracemes; rachis ca.
40 cm long, thick, woody, sericeous; flowers in
groups of three on each of the nodal swellings
along the rachis; bracts subulate, ca. 1.5 cm long,
reflexed, sericeous. Calyx ca. 1.5 cm long,
ferruginous-strigulose, with five lobes, one of
which is lanceolate and longer, the rest ovate;
corolla cardinal red or violet, the standard ca. 1.2
cm long, with the center whitish inside, the wings
and the keel unguiculate, as long as the standard.
Legume 10-15 × 5-6 cm, oblong, laterally
compressed between the seeds, densely pubescent,
glabrescent on drying, the margins thickened.
Seeds 1-3, circular, 2-3.5 cm long, brown with a
black hilum along 2/3 - 3/4 of the circumference.
Phenology: Collected in flower from October
to December and in fruit from January to March.
Status: Native, uncommon.
Distribution: In forests and pastures at lower
or middle elevations. Also in Cuba, Hispaniola,
Jamaica, Central America, South America, and
tropical western Africa.
Public Forest: El Yunque.
Commentary: In this work I follow Maxwell
(1999), who considers D. reflexa as a species
distinct from the Asian species, D. hexandra
(Ralph) Mabberley.
The seeds of D. reflexa superficially resemble
those of Mucuna urens, since they are of similar
size and both possess a hilum that covers a large
portion of its circumference. Nevertheless, the
seeds of D. reflexa are distinguished from those
of the latter species by their light brown color with
brown spots (vs. uniformly reddish brown) and
by the presence of a dark brown hilum (vs. a black
hilum).