Home Flora of Panama (WFO)
Name Search
Markup OCR Documents
!!Cnidoscolus Pohl Search in The Plant ListSearch in IPNISearch in Australian Plant Name IndexSearch in Index Nominum Genericorum (ING)Search in NYBG Virtual HerbariumSearch in JSTOR Plant ScienceSearch in SEINetSearch in African Plants Database at Geneva Botanical GardenAfrican Plants, Senckenberg Photo GallerySearch in Flora do Brasil 2020Search in Reflora - Virtual HerbariumSearch in Living Collections Decrease font Increase font Restore font
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 3/18/2013)
 

Flora Data (Last Modified On 3/18/2013)
Genus Cnidoscolus Pohl
PlaceOfPublication PI. Brasil. Icon. Descr. 1: 56, 1827, nom. cons. prop.
Description Tree, shrubs, or herbs; monoecious; stems and leaves containing milky latcx and armed with stinging hairs. Leaves alternate; petioles long, glandular at junc- tion with blade; stipules usually present; palmately (rarely pinnately) veined, mostly palmately lobed, sometimes deeply parted and nearly compound. Inflo- rescences terminal (sometimes pseudo-axillary) dichasia, the pistillate flowers at the lower (proximal) nodes, the staminate at upper nodes; flowers with more or less petaloid calyx, usually white; apetalous. Staminate flowers with calyx gamo- sepalous, lobes imbricate in bud; disc annular; stamens 8-10(-25), the outer free and the inner connate (or all connate); pollen grains globose, periporate, clavate; filiform staminodes (pistillodes?) sometimes present atop staminal column. Pistil- late flowers with calyx chorisepalous, the sepals deciduous (or gamosepalous in some species); disc annular, sometimes with staminodes; ovary of 3 (rarely 5) carpels, the ovules 1 per locule, the styles ? free, several times bifid or laciniate (rarely once bifid), sometimes apically dilated. Fruits capsular (rarely drupace- ous); seeds carunculate, with copious endosperm, the embryo straight, the cotyle- dons broad and longer than radicle.
Habit Tree, shrubs, or herbs
Distribution An American genus of about 50 species, the majority in Mexico and Brazil.
Note Although earlier confounded with Jatropha, Cnidoscolus is much closer to Manihot, which it resembles in its apetalous flowers and periporate pollen grains. Cnidos- colus is unique, however, in its armament of painfully stinging hairs. The single native species, C. urens, belongs to an herbaceous complex in sect. Jussieuia (Houst.) Pax & Hoffmann.
Reference MeVaugh, R., The genus Cnidoscolus: generic limits and intrageneric groups. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 71: 457-474, 1944.
Key a. Herbaceous or only slightly woody, 0.5-2 m high; stems and leaves heavily armed with stinging hairs; leaves 3-5-lobed, lobes finely denticulate; petiolar gland of many small digitiform processes; pistillate flowers only 3-6 per inflorescence, sepals ca 3 mm long, styles incrassate ......................... 1. C. urens aa. Arborescent shrub or tree, mostly 3-8 m high or more; stems and leaves (except sometimes for petioles and leaf-veins) nearly unarmed; leaves mostly 7-lobed, lobes coarsely and sharply again lobed; petiolar gland entire; pistillate flowers up to 20-30 per inflorescence, sepals 5-7 mm long, style-tips very slender . .. ..... 2. C. aconitifolius
 
 
© 2024 Missouri Botanical Garden - 4344 Shaw Boulevard - Saint Louis, Missouri 63110