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
6a. Stems triangular; leaf blades usually with cutting margins; leaf sheath closed; flowers subtended by
a single scale ................………………………………………………………... Cyperaceae
6b. Stems cylindrical; leaf blades with margins not cutting; leaf sheath open; flowers subtended by a
pair of scales ………………………………….……………………………………... Poaceae
1. Family ARACEAE
Key to the genera
1a. Flowers bisexual……………………………………………………………….………………..2
1b. Flowers unisexual………………………………………………………………………………4
2a. Spathes chartaceous and reflexed, the spadix completely exposed; stems up to 5 mm in diameter;
leaves entire, green, not perforated ………….………………….............1. Anthurium
2b. Spathes fleshy and erect, enclosing the spadix; stems up to 2 cm in diameter; leaves pinnately
compound, or entire and variegated, or entire and perforated, not variegated………………….3
3a. Leaves entire and variegated (green and yellow) or green and pinnately compound, not perforated;
ovary unilocular; seeds reniform …..………………...……………...2. Epipremnum
3b. Leaves with entire margins, the blade with large perforations; ovary bilocular; seeds ovoid or
cylindrical ..………………………………….……...................................................3. Monstera
4a. Leaves entire, cordiform or elliptical, or pinnately compound ....…………..….4. Philodendron
4b. Leaves digitate ............................................................…...........……...........……...5. Syngonium
1. ANTHURIUM
Terrestrial or epiphytic herbs, erect or rarely climbing by means of adventitious roots; stems fleshy,
elongate or very reduced. Leaves alternate, simple or digitate; petioles elongate, covered by a cataphyll
in the juvenile stages. Spathe usually chartaceous, reflexed, usually perennial, green, white, pink, or
red; spadix sessile or short-stipitate, cylindrical or conical, with numerous flowers from the apex to the
base. Flowers bisexual, sessile; tepals 4; stamens 4; ovary bilocular, with 1 or 2 pendulous ovules per
locule, the style short or absent, the stigma discoid or lobate. Fruit a bilocular berry, fleshy, red, white,
or violet. Seeds oblong. A neotropical genus of about 700 species.
1. Anthurium scandens (Aubl.) Engler in Mart.,
Fl. Bras. 3(2): 78. 1878.
Fig. 165. A-F
BASIONYM: Dracontium scandens Aubl.
Herbaceous epiphytic vine, that climbs by
means of adventitious roots and attains 1-2 m in
length. Stems cylindrical, the internodes covered
by a fibrous leaf sheath. Leaves simple, alternate,
lanceolate-elliptical or elliptical, 7-13 × 2.5-5 cm,
chartaceous, the apex acuminate, the base obtuse
or attenuate, the margins entire; upper surface
glabrous, foveolate; lower surface glabrous, with
numerous dark dots; petioles 0.7-4.5 cm long; leaf
sheath stramineous, fibrous, persistent, ca. 3 cm
long. Inflorescences axillary, erect; spadix in