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(Last Modified On 6/17/2013)
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(Last Modified On 6/17/2013)
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Genus
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Wulffia Neck. ex Cass.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Dict. Sci. Nat. 29: 491. 1823; 38: 17. 1825.
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Note
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TYPE: Wulffia baccata (L.f.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. P1. 1: 373. 1891.
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Description
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Woody vines, often high-climbing; stems terete or angled, puberulent or scabrous. Leaves opposite, ovate, shallowly toothed, coriaceous, glabrate or scabridulous, pinnately veined but successively 3-5-veined from near the base; petioles slender, forming a persistent intrapetiolar ridge. Inflorescence a terminal aggregate of several heads, these sometimes dichasial or subumbellate; bracts often present. Heads radiate, showy; involucre of numerous bracts in 2-3 imbricate series, ovate, indurate, sometimes recurving apically; receptacle convex; paleas indurate, stramineous, enfolding the florets, apically thickened; ray florets in 1 series, the corolla yellow, mostly narrow, denticulate, the tube short, the limb elongate; disc florets numerous, 5-merous, the corolla obconical, the tube short, the anthers with obtuse appendages, basally auriculate, the style branches lanceolate, unappendaged, the ovary strongly 3-4-angled, the pappus of one deciduous awn arising from an angle of the achene. Achene blackish, prismatic, plump, the pericarp thick, soft and fleshy, the endocarp black, hard; carpopodium small, yellowish; pappus absent at maturity.
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Habit
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Woody vines
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Note
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Wulffia differs from Melanthera in the soft thickening of inulin materials in the pericarp of the achene and in the sclerified, thickened tips of the paleas. While Panamanian species of Melanthera are white flowered and lack rays, some species from South America have yellow rays and resemble Wulifia. Wulffia is also superficially similar to some species of Zexmenia, but these particular species have prominent awns on the achenes.
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Distribution
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Wulffia consists of one species ranging through Central America and northern South America and several species from ultra- montane South America.
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Note
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The black fruits are held high at the edges of the forest and are eaten by birds which presumably digest the pericarp and pass through the hard seeds unscathed.
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Reference
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Huber, J. 1898. Observagoes histologicas e biologicas sobre o fruto da Wulffia stenoglossa DC (Jambui). Bol. Mus. Paraense Hist. Nat. 2: 96-101. Schulz, 0. E. 1911. Compositarum genera nonnulla. In I. Urban, Symb. Ant. 7: 78-144.
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Tag
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Project Name
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