Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

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Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
acute or obtuse, the base acute, obtuse, or attenuate
toward the petiole, the margins entire, revolute;
upper surface glabrous, with the venation flat;
lower surface pale green, glabrous or puberulent
on the veins, the venation prominent; petioles
glabrous, 0.5-2 mm long; stipules ovate, ca. 1.5
mm long, early deciduous. Flowers almost sessile,
in terminal corymbs at the ends of short lateral
branches. Calyx green, 1.5-2 mm long,
crateriform, glabrous, the lobes thin; corolla
campanulate, white, the tube ca. 5 mm long, the
lobes 3-3.5 mm long, spreading; stamens 5,
6. SABICEA
included. Fruits compressed-obovoid, 5-6 mm
long, red when ripe. Pyrenes 2, sulcate.
Phenology: Flowering from April to December
and fruiting from July to March.
Status: Native, not very common.
Distribution: In disturbed areas, dry forests
and thickets. Also on Isla Piñeiro, Vieques, Guana,
St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, Tortola, and
Virgin Gorda; Cuba, Hispaniola, the Lesser
Antilles, northern South America and along the
Pacific coast of South America to Peru.
Public Forests: Ceiba, Guánica, and
Guajataca.
Vines or twining lianas or less frequently small trees. Leaves opposite or whorled, entire; stipules
interpetiolar, simple, persistent. Flowers bisexual, 4-6-merous, actinomorphic, produced in axillary
cymes or fascicles. Calyx 3-6-lobate; corolla infundibuliform or hypocrateriform, the tube short or
elongate, with 4-5 lobes; stamens 4-6, inserted on the throat of the corolla, exserted or included; ovary
inferior, with (2)3-5 carpels, each carpel with numerous axile ovules. Fruit a berry with 2-5 locules;
seeds numerous, minute, ovoid or angular, foveate. A genus of approximately 135 species, distributed
in tropical America, Africa, and Madagascar.
1. Sabicea villosa Roem. & Schult., Veg. 5: 265.
1819.
Fig. 148. A-D
SYNONYM: Sabicea hirsuta Kunth
Herbaceous or slightly woody vine, twining,
attainig 5 m in length. Stem green, hirsute,
cylindrical, glabrescent, attaining 5 mm in
diameter. Leaves opposite, membranaceous, 6-12
× 3.2-5.5 cm, ovate, oblong or elliptical, the apex
acuminate, the base obtuse or less frequently
attenuate, unequal, the margins entire, ciliate;
upper surface sparsely hirsute, with the venation
sunken; lower surface sparsely hirsute,
particularly on the prominent veins; petioles
hirsute, 7-14 mm long; stipules broadly ovate, 6-
7 mm long, strigulose on the outer surface,
persistent. Flowers sessile, in axillary clusters;
bracts ovate, 3-5 mm long. Calyx green, strigose,
2-2.5 mm long, the lobes 5, expanded, glabrous;
7. SCHRADERA
corolla tubular, white, strigose, 6-7 mm long.
Berry globose or ellipsoid, fleshy, strigose, 7-10
mm long, purple, with the sepals persistent at the
apex. Seeds numerous, ca. 0.5 mm long,
cuneiform.
Phenology: Flowering and fruiting during
most of the year.
Status: Native, not very common.
Distribution: In pastures and forests in moist
and wet areas at middle elevations. Also tropical
continental America.
Public Forests: Carite, El Yunque, Maricao,
Río Abajo, and Toro Negro.
Excluded Species
Sabicea cinerea and Sabicea sp. a. (of the
Spanish edition of this books) are excluded as their
records were based on misidentification of
Tetrapteryx inaequalis of the Malpighiaceae.
Trees or shrubs, epiphytic or climbing by means of adventitious roots. Leaves opposite, coriaceous,
entire, petiolate; stipules interpetiolar, large, connate at the base, deciduous. Flowers bisexual, 5-10merous,
actinomorphic, produced in involucrate and pedunculate heads, these solitary or in umbels.