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(Last Modified On 3/20/2013)
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(Last Modified On 3/20/2013)
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Genus
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Plukenetia L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. PI. 1192, 1753
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Reference
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Gen. PI. ed. 5, 438, 1754.
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Description
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Lianas; young stem apices puberulent with simple hairs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate (stipules small and deciduous); blades entire or dentate, palmately or pinnately veined, usually stipellate and with a pair of sessile glands at base. Inflorescences axillary, narrowly paniculate or thyrsoid, hermaphroditic or male; female flowers 1 or 2 at the base of hermaphroditic inflorescences, male flowers in more or less abbreviated distal monochasia; bracts small, eglandular. Staminate flowers pedicellate; calyx splitting into usually 4 lanceolate segments; petals absent; receptacle slightly to distinctly conical; disc of interstaminal segments or absent; stamens 10-40, the filaments free or more or less basally adnate to the receptacle, the anthers more or less 4-lobed, apiculate; pollen grains oblate, 3-colpate, tectate; pistillode rudimentary or absent. Pistillate flowers with stout pedicels; calyx-segments 4 or S, barely imbricate; petals and disc absent; ovary of 3 or 4 carpels, ovules solitary in each locule, the styles connate at least half way, the style-tips entire or obscurely bilobed. Fruits large, capsular, cocci smooth to carinate or winged, rather thick-walled; seeds globose to lenticular, smooth, ecarunculate, endosperm present, the cotyledons ovate, palmately veined.
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Habit
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Lianas
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Note
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In the broad circumscription of Bentham (Gen. PI. 3: 327, 1880), this is a rather variable genus of about 15 species from tropical regions except Australia. Proposed segregate genera such as Anabaenella, Angostylidium, Apodandra, Elaeophora, Fragariopsis, and Pterococcus are each distinguished by only one or two characters, whereas they all have much in common with the typical element (Plukenetia volubilis L.) in habit, flowers, pollen, and fruits. Since these segregate taxa each have only one to three species, the utility of fragmenting the Plukenetia complex to such an extent seems questionable.
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