Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

296
Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
25-35 × 6.5-7.5 cm, oblong, flattened, coriaceous,
glabrous, stipitate, with the margins thickened and
conspicuously undulate, separating into segments
that contain a single seed. Seeds 4-6 mm long,
elliptical, light brown.
Phenology: Collected in flower in May.
3. MIMOSA
Status: Apparently native, extremely rare or
extirpated.
Distribution: Known from a single collection
(Sintenis 1240), from the base of Monte de Mula
in Fajardo. Also on Dominica and in northern
South America.
Erect or scandent herbs or shrubs; stems spiny. Leaves alternate, bipinnate; pinnae opposite; leaflets
small, numerous, opposite; petioles and rachis without nectariferous glands; stipules minute, deciduous
or persistent; stipels minute or absent. Flowers bisexual or staminate, produced in heads, solitary or
grouped in axillary or terminal racemes; bracts small, usually shorter than the corolla. Calyx minute,
hypocrateriform, crowned by 5 minute sepals; corolla yellow or pink, infundibuliform, with 3-6 lobes
(petals); stamens as numerous as or double the number of petals, exserted, the filaments free; ovary
superior, stipitate, with several ovules, the style filiform, the stigma punctiform. Fruit an oblong legume,
chartaceous, flattened, indehiscent or dehiscent by the walls that separate from the thickened margin,
usually spiny; seeds flattened, lenticular or ovate. A genus of about 450 species, of pantropical
distribution, the majority of the Neotropics.
Key to the species of Mimosa
1a. Fruits obtusely quadrangular, with numerous longitudinal ribs …..…......... 4. M. quadrivalvis
1b. Fruits flattened, without longitudinal ribs …………………………….…………………........ 2
2a. Leaves with a single pair of pinnae; leaflets 3-4 pairs, elliptic-oblong-lanceolate, acute at the
apex...........…………………………………………………………………..…….......… 1. M. casta
2b. Leaves with 2-7 pairs of pinnae; leaflets 3-20 pairs, obliquely obovate or oblong, rounded or obtuse
at the apex..............................…………………………………………………………………… 3
3a. Leaflets 15-20 pairs, 3-4 mm long, oblong; heads ca. 6 mm in diameter................3. M. diplotricha
3b. Leaflets 3-8 pairs, 1-1.5 cm long, obliquely obovate; heads 1.3-1.7 cm in diameter......2. M. ceratonia
1. Mimosa casta L., Sp. Pl. 518. 1753.
Fig. 118. E-H
Zarza
Woody vine, climbing, scarcely branched, that
supports itself on other plants by means of spines
which are borne along the length of its stems and
petioles, and attainig 1-2 m in length. Stems
angular, glabrous, with numerous recurved spines.
Leaves alternate, bipinnate, with a single pair of
pinnae; leaflets 3-4 pairs, elliptical to oblonglanceolate,
1-3 × 0.5-1.5 cm, the apex acute, the
base asymmetrical, one side attenuate, the other
rounded, the margins ciliate; upper surface
glabrous; lower surface sparsely sericeous, with
prominent venation; petioles up to 10 cm long,
with numerous recurved spines, pulvinate at the
base; stipules subulate, ca. 5 mm long.
Inflorescences of globose heads, axillary; peduncle
5-15 mm long. Calyx ca. 0.2 mm long, glabrous;
corolla white, infundibuliform 1-2 mm long,
glabrous, with 4 lobes; stamens 4, the filaments
free, ca. 1 cm long. Legume flattened, oblong, 3-
4 × ca. 1.2 cm, glabrous, with 4-5 articulations,
the margin with recurved spines.
Phenology: Collected in flower and fruit in
January and February.
Status: Exotic, adventive, apparently a recent
introduction, locally common.
Distribution: On roadsides and in pastures at
lower and middle elevations. Also in the Lesser
Antilles and from Panama to Brazil.