Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 327
4. Jasminum sambac (L.) Soland. in Ait., Hort.
Kew. ed. 1, 1: 8. 1789.
Fig. 131. G-I
BASIONYM: Nyctanthes sambac L.
Diamela
Erect or clambering shrub, 1-2 m in length.
Stems slender, puberulent, glabrous when mature.
Leaves opposite, simple, 3.5-10.5 × 3-5.8 cm,
elliptical, the apex obtuse, mucronate, the base
obtuse to rounded, the margins entire; upper
surface glabrous, except for the midvein, which
is puberulent; lower surface glabrous, with the
midvein prominent, barbate on the secondary
veins; petioles pubescent, 5-7 mm long.
32. Family PASSIFLORACEAE
1. PASSIFLORA
Inflorescences of axillary cymes, longpedunculate,
with few fragrant flowers; peduncle
and pedicels pubescent. Calyx green, ca. 1 cm
long, infundibuliform, tomentose, with 7-10 linear
lobes; corolla white, hypocrateriform, the tube 1-
1.4 cm long, the lobes 5, elliptical, 1-1.3 cm long.
Fruits not observed.
Phenology: Collected in flower during
September.
Status: Exotic, cultivated and naturalized
(according to Liogier, 1995), uncommon.
Distribution: Species native to India,
introduced as an ornamental. Also on Vieques;
cultivated throughout the tropics.
Herbaceous or woody vines that climb by means of axillary tendrils. Leaves alternate, simple,
entire or palmately lobed; petioles usually with extrafloral nectaries; stipules usually small and deciduous.
Flowers usually large and showy, bisexual or less frequently unisexual, actinomorphic, produced in
axillary cymes or solitary, sometimes covered at the base by an involucre of foliaceous bracts; hypanthium
short or tubular; calyx of (3-)5(-8) sepals, free or connate at the base. Petals as numerous as the sepals,
alternating with them, rarely absent; corona of 1 or several whorls of free or connate appendages;
stamens (4)5, the filaments free or on a stipe (androgynophore), the anthers dehiscent by longitudinal
valves; ovary superior, usually on a gynophore, or rarely sessile, unilocular, with (2)3(-5) carpels, the
placentation parietal, with numerous ovules, the styles 3, free or connate at the base, the stigmas
capitate or oblanceolate. Fruit a berry or less frequently a capsule. A genus of 400 species, 350 of these
native to tropical America, the rest to the paleotropics.
Key to the species of Passiflora
1a. Leaves trifoliolate ...............………………………………………………………… 1. P. berteroana
1b. Leaves simple...............…………………………………………………………………...…… 2
2a. Leaves entire, not lobed...............………………………………………………………………… 3
2.b Leaves variably lobate..............………………………………………………………………….. 7
3a. Stipules foliaceous, ovate or elliptical; petioles with 3 pairs of glands.........9. P. quadrangularis
3b. Stipules filiform; petioles with one pair of glands...............…………………………………...… 4
4a. Flowers subtended by a minute subulate bract or without bracts……………………..…… 5
4b. Flowers subtended by an involucre of foliaceous bracts………………..……………… 6