Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

316
Hyperbaena apiculata Urb. & Ekman
Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
Erect, decumbent, or scandent shrub attainig
5-6 m in length. Stems cylindrical, glabrous,
striate. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, elliptical or
less frequently elliptic-lanceolate, glabrous, 8-16
× 2.3-5 cm, with the venation pinnate, the apex
acute, the base obtuse, the margins entire; upper
surface with the venation pale; lower surface
glabrous, the primary vein prominent, the
secondary and tertiary venation slightly
prominent, reticulate; petioles 0.7-1.7 cm long,
pulvinate at the apex and the base. Inflorescences
racemose, of minute greenish flowers; the axes
ferruginous-strigulose; staminate inflorescences
clustered, much longer than the petioles; pistillate
inflorescences solitary or clustered, as long as or
shorter than the petioles. Staminate flowers: calyx
ca. 0.5 mm long; petals ca. 1 mm long; stamens
6, almost sessile. Monocarps circular, slightly
compressed, glabrous, 2.3-2.7 cm long.
Phenology: Collected in flower from February
to August and in fruit in March.
Status: Native, uncommon.
Distribution: In moist forests in the zone of
mogotes. Also on St. Thomas and Hispaniola.
Public Forest: Río Abajo.
Reference: Mathias, M. E. and W. L. Theobald. 1981. A revision of the genus Hyperbaena
(Menispermaceae). Brittonia 33: 81-104.
29. Family MORACEAE
1. FICUS
Trees or shrubs, erect, scandent, or strangling, that produce abundant milky latex when wounded.
Leaves alternate, simple or lobate, coriaceous; petioles short or elongate; stipules deciduous, elongate,
forming a conical hood that protects the apical meristem. Flowers unisexual, minute, produced in the
interior of an axillary inflorescence, globose or ellipsoid, formed by an enlarged receptacle (syconium);
calyx reduced, membranaceous; corolla absent. Staminate flowers with 2 stamens; pistillate flower
with a unilocular ovary with one apical ovule. Fruit a syconium formed by an enlarged receptacle,
globose or ellipsoid, containing numerous achenes in the interior. A genus of about 800 species, of
pantropical distribution.
Key to the species of Ficus
1a. Plants with long pendulous or scandent branches, without adventitious roots; plants with a single
phase; syconium globose, depressed-globose, or obovoid, 6-12 mm long....................... 1. F. citrifolia
1b. Plants ascending by adventitious roots; plants with a dimorphic juvenile phase; syconium pyriform,
4-6 cm long ..............................………………………………………………………… 2. F. pumila
1. Ficus citrifolia Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. 1768.
Fig. 127. A-C
Jagüey blanco, White fig
Terrestrial or strangling (epiphytic) tree
attainig 10 m in height, or less frequently a liana
attainig 10 m in length, producing abundant milky
latex. When it grows as a liana its branches are
pendulous or scandent, the stems cylindrical,
attaining 10 cm in diameter. Leaves alternate, 4-
20 × 2-12 cm, elliptical, ovate, elliptic-lanceolate,
or less frequently oblanceolate, chartaceous or
subcoriaceous, glabrous, the apex obtuse or
acuminate, the base obtuse, cordiform, or truncate,