Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 311
2. Marcgravia sintenisii Urb., Jahrb. Bot. Gart.
Berlin 4: 245. 1886.
Fig. 124. H-K
Pegapalma
Plant with the juvenile phase morphologically
different from the adult phase. Juvenile plant ca.
1 m in length, sparsely branched, climbing by
means of adventitious roots; stems flattened;
leaves 1.5-2 cm long, cordiform to almost
rounded, with the margin crenate, very closely
spaced. Adult plant developing into a woody vine,
with scandent and pendulous branches, attainig
5-10 m in length. Stems cylindrical, 2-5 cm in
diameter. Leaves alternate, changing from reddish
to green when mature, 4.5-9 × 1.3-4 cm,
coriaceous, elliptical, lanceolate, or oblong, the
base obtuse to rounded, the apex acute or obtuse,
the margins revolute; upper surface dark green,
dull; lower surface light green, dull, with
numerous scattered black dots, the midvein
prominent; petioles 4-5 mm long. Inflorescence
an umbelliform raceme with about 50 flowers and
7-9 reddish nectaries in a central position, 1.8-2
× 1-1.2 cm; pedicels geniculate, 1.5-3.5 cm long,
with few lenticels; bracts minute, opposite, not
near the flower. Calyx reddish, of 4 rounded
sepals, ca. 2 mm long; corolla calyptrate, 3-5 mm
long, reddish or green with an orange tinge,
deciduous; stamens 10-11; ovary light orange, the
stigma green. Fruit globose, reddish, ca. 1 cm in
diameter, fleshy. Seeds numerous, ca. 1 mm long,
pink or green.
Phenology: Flowering and fruiting from April
to December.
Status: Endemic to Puerto Rico, common.
Distribution: In moist and wet forests at upper
elevations.
Public Forests: Carite, El Yunque, Guilarte,
Maricao, and Toro Negro.
Reference: Dressler, S. 1997. Lectotypification of Marcgravia rectiflora (Marcgraviaceae). Taxon
46: 109-110.
28. Family MENISPERMACEAE
Key to the genera
1a. Slightly woody vine; leaves broadly ovate to rounded, with the lower surface pubescent and the
base peltate; anthers sessile; fruits globose, red-orange, pilose ..…..1. Cissampelos
1b. Liana; leaves ovate to broadly ovate, with the lower surface glabrous and the base not peltate;
anthers on long filaments; fruits obovoid, purple ………………….2. Hyperbaena
1. CISSAMPELOS
Herbaceous vines, twining, dioecious, usually with simple trichomes. Leaves alternate, rounded to
ovate, peltate or cordiform at the base, palmately veined; petioles elongate; stipules absent. Flowers
minute, unisexual, pedicellate, in axillary inflorescences. Staminate flowers actinomorphic, in corymbs;
sepals 4, free; corolla hypocrateriform; stamens 4, connate into a short tube, with sessile anthers.
Pistillate flowers zygomorphic, in elongate cymes with foliaceous bracts; calyx and corolla of a single
sepal and a single petal toward the same side of the flower; ovary superior, sessile, unilocular, with a
single basal ovule, the stigma lobate. Fruit a globose drupe, fleshy, with the endocarp woody and
verrucose; seed horseshoe-shaped. A genus of 19 species, of pantropical distribution.