Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

390
Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
1. Clerodendrum aculeatum (L.) Schltdtl.,
Linnaea 6: 750. 1831.
Fig. 159. A-E
BASIONYM: Volkameria aculeata L.
Erect or scandent shrub attainig 3 m in length.
Stems cylindrical, usually striate, puberulent, with
2 or 3 spines, opposite or whorled, in the area of
the nodes; stipules absent. Leaves opposite or three
per node, 1.5-7 × 0.5-2.6 cm, oblong or ellipticovate,
chartaceous, glabrous or puberulent, the
apex acute or obtuse, the base cuneate or rounded,
the margins entire; upper surface dull, dark green;
lower surface pale green, dull, with numerous
49. Family VERBENACEAE
Key to the genera
1a. Flowers sessile, subtended by an involucre of 3(4) elongate bracts, expanded, pink or lilac at the
base, much longer than the calyx.………………………………..….……..2. Congea
1b. Flowers with minute bracts, not covering the calyx……………………...………………..2
2.a Calyx gamosepalous, acetabuliform, orange, the sepals not apparent ….….3. Holmskioldia
2b. Calyx of free sepals or sepals connate only at the base, of various colors, but not orange…………....3
3a. Inflorescences corymbiform; calyx green, white, or pink, the sepals imbricate……1. Clerodendrum
3b. Inflorescences racemose; calyx violet, the sepals expanded .................……………….…....4. Petrea
1. CLERODENDRUM
Trees, erect shrubs, or less frequently lianas or scandent shrubs, sometimes with axillary spines.
Leaves simple, opposite or whorled, petiolate, with entire or dentate margins. Flowers showy, bisexual,
zygomorphic, in axillary cymes or terminal panicles. Calyx campanulate or tubular, truncate, 5-lobate;
corolla 5-merous, hypocrateriform; stamens 4, the filaments didynamous, adnate to the base of the
corolla, exserted; ovary superior, 4-locular, each locule with a solitary ovule; style slender, crowned by
a globose stigma. Fruit drupaceous, 4-lobate, with 4 pyrenes. A genus of approximately 400 species,
the majority native to the tropics of the Old World.
Key to the species of Clerodendrum
1a. Branches with conical spines, opposite or whorled, in the area of the nodes................1. C. aculeatum
1b. Branches unarmed....…………………………………………………………………………2
2a. Calyx reddish, 1-1.5 cm long …............……….………..……...……………...….. C. × speciosum
2b. Calyx white, 1.5-2.5 cm long ........….........………………..………………..…………. C. thomsonae
dots; petioles 2.5-10 mm long, puberulent.
Inflorescences of axillary cymes. Calyx
campanulate, puberulent, 2.5-4 mm long, the
sepals expanded; corolla white, hypocrateriform,
1.4-2.7 cm long, the tube sometimes with a purple
tinge; filaments pink, twice as long as the corolla;
style purple, as long as the filaments. Drupe ovoid
or depressed-ovoid, 5-7 mm long, opening in two
halves when ripe.
Phenology: Collected in flower from January
to March and from August to October and in fruit
from January to August.
Status: Native, locally common.