Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 345
rounded, the base obtuse or almost rounded, the
margins entire, markedly revolute, ciliate; upper
surface dark green, glabrous, puberulent, or
minutely strigulose, with dark dots; lower surface
concave, pale green, glabrous or puberulent, with
dark dots; petioles thin, 1-5 mm long, with minute
dark dots. Inflorescences of terminal spikes, 1-
2.5 cm long, produced on the lateral branchlets.
35. Family PLUMBAGINACEAE
1. PLUMBAGO
Phenology: Flowering throughout the year.
Status: Native, locally common.
Distribution: On trees and rocks in moist
forests of the Cordillera Central. Also in Cuba,
Jamaica, the Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and
tropical continental America.
Public Forests: Carite, El Yunque, Guajataca,
Guilarte, Maricao, Río Abajo, and Toro Negro.
Shrubs or herbs, erect, creeping, or climbing. Leaves simple, alternate, petiolate or sessile, with
pinnate venation; stipules absent. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, short-pedicellate, bibracteate, in
terminal racemes or panicles; calyx with 5 longitudinal ribs covered with stipitate glands, the lobes
triangular; corolla hypocrateriform, the tube longer than the calyx, the lobes obovate, rounded, or
truncate; stamens 5, the filaments free, included or slightly exserted, the anthers dehiscent by
longitudinal valves; ovary superior, unilocular, with one basal ovule per carpel; style united, with 5
stigmatic branches. Fruit a valvate capsule, membranaceous, with a single seed. A tropical genus of
12-20 species.
1. Plumbago scandens L., Sp. Pl. ed. 2, 215.
1762.
Fig. 140. A-F
Slightly woody shrub, scandent, with
numerous basal or lateral branches, attaining 2-3
m in length. Stems cylindrical, striate, glabrous.
Leaves alternate, chartaceous, 3-13 × 1-6 cm,
ovate, oblong-lanceolate, spathulate, or
oblanceolate, the apex acute, acuminate, or obtuse,
the base obtuse, rounded, cuneate, or attenuate,
sometimes unequal, the margins entire; upper
surface glabrous; lower surface with lepidote dots;
petioles 5-10 mm long. Inflorescences of terminal
panicles, up to 30 cm long; peduncles glabrous,
striate, sparsely covered with sessile glands;
bracteoles elliptical, ca. 2 mm long; pedicels ca.
1 cm long. Calyx green, 7-11 mm long, the ribs
with sticky stipitate glands; corolla white,
hypocrateriform, the tube 1.2-2 cm long, the lobes
0.5-1 cm long, obovate, mucronate; stamens
exserted, the anthers pale violet. Fruit an oblong
capsule, covered by the persistent calyx and sticky.
Phenology: Collected in flower from January
to August.
Status: Exotic, cultivated and naturalized,
common in our gardens.
Distribution: Cultivated, rather common, also
naturalized in disturbed areas, roadsides, and in
pastures. Also on Desecheo, Mona, St. Croix, St.
John, St. Thomas, and Tortola; throughout tropical
America.
Public Forest: Mona.