Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 81
anthers sessile, lanceolate; stigma conical.
Follicles 7.5-10 cm long.
Phenology: Collected in flower in September.
Status: Exotic, common, cultivated.
Distribution: Native to Madagascar.
Commonly cultivated in gardens for its attractive,
fragrant flowers. Also in St. Croix.
3. Marsdenia woodburyana Acev.-Rodr.,
Brittonia 51: 167. 1999.
Fig. 28. A-F
Woody vine, twining, 5-8 m in length, with
abundant milky latex. Stems thick, cylindrical,
glabrous, sparsely lenticellate, grayish, attaining
ca. 3 cm in diameter at the base. Leaves opposite;
blades 6-6.5 × 3.5-4 cm, ovate, coriaceous, the
apex acute, obtuse, or short-acuminate, the base
rounded, the margins entire, markedly revolute;
upper surface glabrous, with 2 acicular glands on
the portion adjacent to the petiole; lower surface
pale green, glabrous or minutely puberulous;
petioles 1.5-2 cm long, glabrous, sulcate on the
upper surface; stipules absent. Flowers about 20,
6. MATELEA
arranged in umbelliform racemes; peduncles ca.
1 cm long; pedicels 7-10 mm long. Calyx light
green, rotate, of 5 imbricate sepals, ovate-rounded,
obtuse, 3-3.5 mm long, puberulous on the abaxial
surface, ciliate on the margins; corolla rotate, the
lobes ovate, 5.5-7 mm long, glabrous, light green
in the central portion, purple-pink toward the
markedly revolute margins, the apex reflexed;
corona with segments of staminal origin (the distal
portion of the filaments), fleshy, asymmetricpyramidal,
ca. 3 mm long, projecting into a short
distal appendage, triangular, inflexed, pink;
anthers oblong, ca. 2 mm long; stigma flat.
Follicle lanceolate-fusiform, slightly compressed,
woody, 11-13 × 2-3 cm; seeds numerous,
membranaceous, ovate, ca. 1 cm long, with a long
tuft of brown-cream hairs.
Phenology: Collected in flower in May and in
fruit in January and July.
Status: Endemic to Puerto Rico, extremely rare
or threatened.
Distribution: Known only from Caña Gorda,
Guánica (Acevedo-Rdgz. and L. Ramírez 10174;
Proctor 39358; L. Ramírez 48).
Public forest: Guánica.
Erect subshrubs or twining vines, with abundant milky latex; with or without an indumentum of
glandular hairs. Leaves opposite, petiolate; blades simple, with glands at the base; stipules absent.
Flowers in axillary cymes, with short peduncles or subsessile. Calyx with 5 elongated sepals, usually
glandular inside at the base; corolla subrotate, more or less lobed; corona annular, of staminal origin;
stamens 5, inserted at the base of the corolla, the filaments connate, forming a short tube, the anthers
concrescent around the style, pollinia horizontal or subpendulous; ovary superior, of two free carpels,
the stigma capitate, projecting beyond the anthers. Fruit a fusiform to ovoid follicle, smooth or muricate;
seeds numerous, with a tuft of hairs at the apex. A genus of 300 species, distributed from southern
North America to South America, including the Antilles.
Key to the species of Matelea
1a. Plants robust, slightly woody; stems 4 mm or more in diameter; leaves densely pubescent on the
lower surface; follicles ovoid-fusiform, verrucose .................................................... 1. M. maritima
1b. Plants herbaceous; stems 2 mm or less in diameter; leaves glabrous or puberulous on the lower
surface; follicles elongate-fusiform, smooth ..................................................................................... 2
2a. Leaves rounded, truncate, or subcordiform at the base, never obtuse or acute; sepals ovate, ca. 1.5
mm long; lobes of the corolla lanceolate-triangular, not overlapping ..................... 2. M. sintenisii
2b. Leaves variable at the base, sometimes rounded, but always with some obtuse or acute; sepals
oblong-ovate, 2-2.5 mm long; lobes of the corolla rounded, imbricate .................. 3. M. variifolia