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(Last Modified On 5/8/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/8/2013)
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Genus
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Gouania Jacq.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Select. Stirp. Amer. Hist. 263. 1763.
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Description
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Lianas, or scandent to arching shrubs, climbing by tendrils. Leaves alternate, pinnately-nerved or sometimes 3-nerved from the base, mostly dentate, the teeth frequently glandular; petiolate, the stipules narrow and deciduous or sometimes broad and persistent. Inflorescences spicate thyrses composed of glomerules, axillary or terminal. Flowers bisexual or 'polygamous; floral tube obconic to siibcampanulate; sepals 5, persistent; petals 5, white to green white, short-clawed; stamens 5, hidden by the petals; nectariferous disc 5-lobed or pentagonal, the lobes opposite the sepals; ovary inferior, immersed in the disc, 3-locular, the style 3-branched more or less basally, the stigmas minute. Fruit a schizocarp, 3-locular, generally 3-winged, splitting longitudinally along the margin of each wing into 3, 2-winged mericarps; seeds 3, the seed coat shiny.
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Habit
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Lianas shrubs
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Distribution
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A genus of 30-50 species, pantropical but mostly New World.
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Note
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Gouania is a large and perplexing genus in which the specific boundaries are difficult to assess. The entire genus is sorely in need of critical study, and the absence of any modern revision makes a regional treatment precarious at best. Nevertheless, I make the following changes and comments: After examina- tion of a large number of Panamanian collections, I find that Suessenguth's (Nat. Pfl. ed. 2. 20d: 169. 153) separation of G. lupuloides (L.) Urban and 3 It is impossible to describe the remainder of the floral parts due to the immaturity of the flowers and their distortion from pressing and drying. G. polygama (Jacq.) Urban on the basis of the pubescence of the leaf under- surface [only on the veins in G. lupuloides versus thickly pubescent (generally?) in G. polygama] cannot be maintained due to the great number of transitional forms. I have therefore reduced G. polygama to G. lupuloides. Several collections from Barro Colorado Island have very pubescent fruits [Croat 7984 (MO); Woodworth & Vestal 326 (A, F)], but except for a more dense pubescence generally the specimens fall within the limits of morphological variation of Gouania lupuloides. I have included them with that species.
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Key
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a. Leaves densely white-tomentose beneath .... 1. G. hypoglauca aa. Leaves glabrous to densely pubescent, but not white-tomentose ..... 2. G. lupuloides
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