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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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Tragia volubilis L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. PI. 980, 1753.-Fig. 14.
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Synonym
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Tragia volubilis var. lanceolata Muell.-Arg. in Martius, Fl. Brasil. 11(2): 414, 1874.
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Description
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Twining vine; stems and foliage more or less densely covered with stinging hairs. Leaves thin; petioles 0.5-2.5 cm long; stipules ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, greenish, ca 2-4 mm long; blades elliptic-oblong, 2.5-7 cm long, 0.7-2.5 cm broad, above sparsely and beneath more densely beset with stinging hairs, mostly 5-veined at base, the base subcordate to distinctly cordate, the margins sharply serrate (teeth 8-20 on a side), the apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences opposite the leaves (sometimes apparently axillary),becoming ca 1-2.5 cm long, usually with a single basal 9 flower, remaining nodes (ca 15-25) with d' flowers; 9 bracts mostly trifid, d' bracts entire. Staminate flowers with minutely hispidulous pedicels ca 1.1-1.6 mm long, articulate somewhat below the middle (stumps remaining after dehiscence of flower shorter than to as long as the subtending bract); calyx-lobes 3, elliptic, acute, 0.8-0.9 mm long, 0.5-0.6 mm broad; stamens 2 [in Panamanian specimens], the filaments thick and fleshy, free, shorter than the anthers, the anthers elliptic, 0.3-0.4 mm long. Pistillate flowers with hispidulous pedicels which elongate greatly in fruit to (1-)1.5-2.5 cm long; calyx-lobes 6, ? biseriate, lanceolate, acute, greenish, reflexed in fruit, increasing from ca 1.2 to ca 1.8 mm in length; ovary densely hispidulous with stinging hairs, the styles basally connate into a column 0.4-1.2 mm high, the tips spreading or usually tightly inrolled. Capsules hispid with stinging hairs, dimorphic, some of the normal 3-coccous type and ca 6 mm in diam, others zygomorphic, with 2 prominent dorsal horns up to 4 mm long, the columella slender, apically dilated into 3 flattened blades, 1.6-1.8 mm long; seeds round, ellipsoid, grayish with reddish-brown ridges (alveolate- reticulate, the color contrast lost in age), ca 2.5 mm long.
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Habit
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vine
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Distribution
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Common and widespread in tropical America from Mexico and Cuba south to Peru, Argentina, and Uruguay; also reported from Africa (where it is presum- ably introduced).
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Specimen
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CANAL ZONE: Balboa, moist thickets, Standley 25472 (US), 26051 (US), 27173 (US); betw Corozal & Ancon, Pittier 6741 (US). HERRERA: secondary woods, 12.5 mi S of Ocu, Lewis et al. 1653 (DAV, GH, MO, US).
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Note
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Although Pax and Hoffmann [Pflanzenreich 68 (IV, 147, IX): 50, 1919] re- ported var. lanceolata from Panama (on the basis of Williams 549, n.v.), the speci- mens examined by me have distinctly serrate leaves and accord well with the typical variety. The plant is doubtless much more widely distributed in Panama than the herbarium records indicate, but has evidently been avoided by most col- lectors.
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