Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

94
Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
Phenology: Flowering from November to July
and fruiting from February to September.
Status: Native, locally common.
1. Bidens reptans (L.) G. Don. in Sweet, Hort.
Brit. ed. 3, 360. 1839.
Fig. 33. D-G
BASIONYM: Coreopsis reptans L.
Herbaceous vine, climbing or clambering, 2-
5 m in length. Stems cylindrical, glabrous or
puberulous, striate. Leaves opposite, 3-5-foliolate
or 3-5-lobed; leaflets lanceolate or elliptical,
membranaceous, the apex acuminate, the base
acute in the terminal leaflet and unequal in the
lateral ones, the margins serrate; upper and lower
surface puberulous; petioles 1-1.8 cm long,
glabrous. Capitula (1-3) in corymbs, produced at
the tips of short axillary branches; involucre ca.
7 mm high, phyllaries in two series, revolute;
corollas yellow, those of the margin with ligules
ca. 1 cm long; anthers dark brown; stigmas yellow.
Achenes linear, 6-10 mm long, compressed, 4angled,
with ascending hairs on the margins;
pappus of 2 setae with retroflexed hairs.
Phenology: Flowering from October to July.
Status: Native, quite common.
Distribution: Abundant in forests in the
Cordillera Central, also in the zone of mogotes,
in moist areas at middle and upper elevations.
2. BIDENS
Distribution: In forests and pastures on the
southern slope of the Cordillera Central and in
southwestern Puerto Rico, at middle and lower
elevations. Also in Cuba and Hispaniola.
Annual or perennial herbs, less frequently shrubs or vines. Stems usually striate. Leaves opposite;
blades simple or compound; petioles and rachis narrowly winged or absent. Inflorescences terminal,
with one to numerous pedunculate capitula; capitula heterogamous, generally radiate or discoid, with
numerous flowers; involucre crateriform, with 2 series of unequal phyllaries, the outer ones green and
narrow, the inner ones brown, with hyaline margins. Marginal flowers 5-12, usually sterile, with the
corolla ligulate, yellow, white, or orange. Disc flowers few or numerous, bisexual, usually yellow,
tubular; stamens 5, the anthers generally black, connate, exserted; ovary inferior, unilocular, the style
filiform, with 2 stigmatic branches. Achenes slightly compressed, glabrous or pubescent; pappus
composed of 1-6 erect bristles, retrorsely barbate. A genus of about 75 species, mostly of Mexico, also
from North America to South America and in the Antilles.
Key to the species of Bidens
1a. Leaves 3-5-lobed or 3-5-foliolate, slightly pubescent; involucre ca. 7 mm high ........ 1. B. reptans
1b. Leaves 2-3 times pinnatisect, glabrous; involucre 8-10 mm high ............................... 2. B. urbanii
Also in Cuba, Jamaica, the Lesser Antilles to St.
Vincent, and from Mexico to Venezuela.
Public forests: Guajataca, Maricao, Río Abajo,
and Susúa.
2. Bidens urbanii Greenm., Field Mus. Bot. 2:
271. 1907.
Fig. 33. H-J
SYNONYM: Bidens reptans var. urbanii (Greenm.) O.E.
Schulz
Bidens portoricensis Bello, non Spreng. ex DC.
Herbaceous vine, climbing or clambering, 4-
5 m in length. Main stem cylindrical, glabrous or
puberulous, with numerous lateral branches along
its length. Leaves opposite; blades simple, 2-3
times pinnatisect, the segments chartaceous, longacuminate
at the apex, the margins serrate,
revolute; upper surface green, shiny, glabrous;
lower surface pale green, dull, glabrous, pitted,
with the pinnate venation darker, forming a
marginal vein; rachis slender, marginate; petioles
2-3.5 cm long, slender, sulcate, puberulous.
Capitula (1-3) in corymbs, produced at the tips of
short axillary branches; involucre 8-10 mm high,