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(Last Modified On 5/21/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/21/2013)
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Species
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Melloa quadrivalvis (Jacq.) A. Gentry
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PlaceOfPublication
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Brittonia 25: 237. 1973.
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Synonym
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Bignonia quadrivalvis Jacq., Fragm. Bot. 37, tab. 40, fig. 3. 1800-1809. TYPE: Venezuela, Caracas (not seen). Spathodea fraxinifolia H.B.K., Nov. Gen. Sp. P1. 3: 147. 1819. LECTOTYPE: Venezuela, Rio Guarico, Humboldt & Bonpland 780, flowers only (P). Bignonia populifolia DC., Prodr. 9: 159. 1845. TYPE: Brazil, Cujaba, Manso s.n. (G-DC). Phryganocydia pisoniana Mart. ex DC., Prodr. 9: 209. 1845, pro syn. Spathodea pisoniana DC., Prodr. 9: 209. 1845. TYPE: Brazil, Bahia, Martius, 1818. (M). Tabebuia pisoniana (DC.) Miers, Proc. Roy. Hort. Soc. 3: 199. 1863. Tecoma pisoniana DC. ex Bur. & K. Schum. in Mart., Fl. Bras. 8(2): 312. 1897, sphalma for Spathodea? Melloa populifolia (DC.) Britt., Ann. New York Acad. Sci. 7: 188. 1893.
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Description
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Liana; twigs terete, gray or brown with pale lenticellate flecks, the nodes without interpetiolar glandular fields but often with a ridge connecting opposite petioles; pseudostipules small, deltoid, apiculate. Leaves 2-foliolate, sometimes with a tendril or tendril scar; leaflets elliptic, acute to rounded, cuneate to truncate at the base, 5-10 cm long and 2-5.5 cm wide, membranaceous, mostly glabrous, scattered lepidote, inconspicuously scabrous at the extreme base of the midvein above, secondary veins 3-6 on a side, drying olive; tendril trifid, the 3 arms uncate, becoming woody with age; petiolules 0.6-2 cm, the petiole 1.1-3.5 cm long, inconspicuously puberulous, usually drying dark brown. Inflor- escence an open, few-flowered panicle sometimes reduced to a single dichotomy, each dichotomy subtended by caducous foliaceous bracts 7-21 mm long and 3-6 mm wide, the pedicels 1-3 cm long, drying dark as the inflorescence rachis. Flowers with the calyx broadly campanulate, membranaceous, more or less subspathaceous, with an apicule ca. 1 mm long, 10-21 cm long and 9-13 cm wide, glabrous (puberulous in Spathodea pisoniana); corolla yellow, tubular, 4-7 cm long and 0.8-1.5 cm wide at the mouth, the tube 3.5-5 cm long, the lobes 0.8-1.5 cm long, mostly glabrous, the lobes more or less ciliate with simple trichomes, conspicuously so in bud, the tube pubescent inside with short tri- chomes at the level of stamen insertion; stamens didynamous, the thecae divari- cate, 4-5 mm long, the longer filaments 2.1-2.3 cm long, shorter filaments 1.4-1.6 cm long, the staminode 5-7 mm long, inserted 5-7 mm from the base of the corolla tube; pistil 3.8-4.0 cm long, the ovary flattened-oblong, conspicu- ously longitudinally ridged, glabrous, the ovules multiseriate in each locule; disc on a short, thick stalk (hence sometimes described as "double"), 1.5-2 mm long and 3.5-4 mm wide. Capsule elliptic, the valves woody, thick (5-8 mm) at maturity breaking evenly in 2 at the midline, drying black or dark brown with tan, lenticellate flecks, minutely tuberculate (sandpaper-finished), 11-15 cm long and 3.9-5.2 cm wide; seeds thin, bialate, 1.1-1.6 cm long and 3.3-5.5 cm wide, the body brown, the wings hyaline-membranaceous with brown basal streaks well demarcated from the seed body.
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Note
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Though widespread, ranging from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina, this liana is of only sporadic occurrence through most of its range and is poorly represented in herbaria. It is one of the few species I have not seen in the field, and its ecological parameters remain undertermined. Although not yet collected in Panama, it almost certainly occurs there, having been collected once in Nicaragua, twice in Costa Rica, and once or twice in northern Colombia. The affinity of M. quadrivalvis is with Macfadyena, especially with M. unguis-cati, from which it is sometimes difficult to distinguish when in flower. In fact it has been suggested that if Doxantha is to be sunk into Macfadyena, then perhaps Melloa should be also. However, the remarkably different fruit of Melloa seems sufficient to maintain its generic separation.
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Distribution
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ranging from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina,
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