Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 341
33. Family PHYTOLACCACEAE
Key to the genera
1a. Fruits woody or subwoody…………………………………………………………….......…… 2
1b. Fruits fleshy ……………………………………………………….……...............… 3. Trichostigma
2a. Fruits indehiscent, with the sepals much longer than the fruit …………….…........ 1. Agdestis
2b. Fruits capsular, with the sepals shorter than the fruit ……………………............ 2. Stegnosperma
1. AGDESTIS
A monotypic genus, characterized by the following species.
1. Agdestis clematidea Moçiño & Sessé ex DC.,
Syst. Nat. 1: 543. 1818.
Fig. 138. A-C
Twining vine, herbaceous, attainig 15 m in
length. Stems angular, reddish, striate, puberulent.
Leaves with a strong, disagreeable odor, alternate,
chartaceous, ovate or broadly ovate, 3-9 × 3-7.5
cm, the apex obtuse or short-acuminate,
mucronate, the base deeply cordiform or hastate,
the margins crenulate; upper surface dark green,
dull, with minute dots; lower surface light green,
dull, puberulent, with prominent venation;
petioles 1.5-9 cm long, with a reddish tinge,
sulcate; stipules absent. Flowers bisexual, white,
in axillary panicles, 6-17 cm long; peduncles
2. STEGNOSPERMA
glabrous or puberulent; pedicels 1-2 mm long,
with a minute green bracteole, lanceolate, at the
base. Sepals 4, white, 3-5 mm long, oblong or
oblanceolate, with the parallel venation
conspicuous; petals absent; stamens 13-20; ovary
partially inferior, the style conical, with 4 recurved
stigmatic branches; ovule solitary. Fruits
coriaceous, indehiscent, turbinate, ca. 3 mm long,
with the sepals persistent at the base. Seeds
elliptical.
Phenology: Flowering from May to December.
Status: Exotic, cultivated and naturalized
(according to Liogier, 1985), uncommon.
Distribution: Occasional in our gardens.
Native to Mexico, cultivated sporadically in the
Antilles and South America.
Erect or scandent shrubs; glabrous. Leaves alternate, simple; stipules minute, deciduous. Flowers
bisexual, in terminal racemes; bracts and bracteoles minute, persistent. Calyx of 5 sepals; corolla of 5
deciduous petals; stamens 10; ovary superior, with 3-5 uniovulate carpels, the styles free, as numerous
as the carpels. Fruit a globose capsule, dehiscent from the apex toward the base; seeds 1-5, globose. A
genus of 3 species, of the Antilles and Central America.
1. Stegnosperma cubense A. Rich. in Sagra, Hist.
Nat. Cub. 10: 309. 1845.
Fig. 138. D-H
Erect, clambering, or creeping shrub, with
numerous lateral branches, attainig 1.5-5 m in
length. Stems cylindrical, glabrous, dark gray,
with minute lenticels. Leaves alternate, coriaceous