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(Last Modified On 3/20/2013)
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(Last Modified On 3/20/2013)
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Species
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Acalypha villosa Jacquin,
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PlaceOfPublication
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Enum. Syst. P1. 32, 1760
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Reference
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Sel. Stirp. P1. Amer. 254, t. 183 f. 61, 1763; Hort. Vindob. 3: 26, t. 47, 1776.
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Description
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Shrub or small tree 2-8 m high; monoecious or dioecious; stems villose with ? appressed hairs. Leaves with slender villose petioles 3-12 cm long; stipules linear-lanceolate to subulate, pubescent, 2.5-4 mm long; blades membranous, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, mostly rounded to subcordate at the base, generally 8-15 cm long, 5-9 cm broad, above strigose or glabrate, beneath sparsely to densely villose and dotted with small (0.05-0.1 mm) shining resinous droplets, 5-nerved at base but pinnately veined above (veins ca 6-8 on a side), the margins coarsely crenate-dentate (25-35 teeth on a side). Inflorescences unisexual, axillary; 9 flowers in slender racemes ca 5-15 cm long, with ca 10-40(-60) flowers, short pedicellate; 6' flowers in spikes ca 3-8 cm long, 1-2 mm thick, rather loosely flowered and becoming more or less interrupted proximally, sessile or with peduncles ca 1-2.5 cm long. Pistillate flowers solitary; bracts very small, scarcely more than 0.5 mm long, pubescent; pedicels 1-1.3 mm at anthesis, attaining 1-3 mm in fruit; calyx- lobes 5, lanceolate, 0.6-0.8 mm long, pubescent; ovary densely verrucose and dotted with resinous droplets, the styles free, basally verruculose, 2-2.5 mm long, distally laciniate into ca 5-10 narrow segments. Capsules ca 2 mm broad, densely verrucose with greenish processes and hispidulous; seeds plumply ovoid (nearly globose), slightly beaked apically, light brown, smooth (minutely foveolate), ca 0.9-1.1 mm long, the caruncle nearly obsolete.
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Habit
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Shrub or small tree
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Distribution
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A widespread and polymorphic species, from British Honduras south to Brazil and Paraguay.
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Specimen
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BOCAS DEL TORO: Changuinola Valley, Dunlap 405 (US); vic of Chiriqui Lagoon, Shepherd I, von Wedel 2686 (GH, MO). CANAL ZONE: Fort Kobbe, nr beach, Duke 4222 (DAV, MO). CHIRIQUI: Rio Chiriqui to Remedios, Woodson et al. 1194 (A, MO). PANAMA: Taboga I, Dwyer 2840 (DAV, MO), Pittier 3547 (US), Riley 139 (MO), Standley 27914 (US), Woodson et al. 1520 (A, MO). VERAGUAS: Isla Coiba, Mendez 120 (US).
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Note
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Pax and Hoffmann [Pflanzenreich 85 (IV, 147, XVI): 17, 1924] referred the Pittier collection from Taboga Island to var. paniculata Muell.-Arg. (DC., Prodr. 15(2): 802, 1866), on the basis of the sparse indument and truncate leaf-bases. However, it remains to be demonstrated that the six varieties recognized by Pax and Hoffmann are geographically defined races, and there seems to be no need to apply any subspecific names to the Panamanian populations of A. villosa.
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