Nodocarpaea includes 1 species of annual herbs found in sandy savannas in western Cuba. This genus is characterized by its low, creeping habit, small subsessile leaves, interpetiolar fimbriate stipules, subsessile very small flowers subtended by a pair of leaves, and small shizocarpous fruits. This species is not well documented by specimens outside Cuba, and does not seem to have been illustrated, nor included in any molecular systematic analyses. 

The Nodocarpaea radicans plants on the MO syntype (MO-2091814) have pellucid punctate dots on the leaves, a feature apparently not noted previoualy. The flower groups are terminal on the main stems or reduced pseudoaxillary stems and subtended by two decussate pairs of leaves, one or both of which are often reduced. The protologue and subsequent descriptions all give the number of corolla lobes as 3, but the flowers on the MO syntype have variously 3 or 4 corolla lobes.

Nodocarpaea radicans was described as variously glabrescent to pilose by both Grisebach and Gray, and Gray's specimen at GH has both forms on it. The two forms are also mixed among the plants on the various type duplicates at GOET that were studied by Grisebach. Borhidi (2017) described this species as consistently pilose, but the prior descripiton of the pubescence as variable seems more accurate. Gray separated the two pubescence forms into to varieties and described the pubescent form as a new varieity. By doing this he included the glabrescent plants in the typical variety, and designated them as the lectotype element of this species. These two forms are mixed and represented in about equal numbers on the three specimens imaged at GOET, rather than being separated on different sheets. This suggests that the populations are variable in pubescence development, and that Gray's two varieties are only individual plant forms. Accordingly, these are not recognized here. 

In the protologue of Nodocarpaea, Gray noted that the plants of Wright 2774, the type number of Borreria radicans, was inadvertently mixed with plants of Wright 2769, Diodia simplex. This is not a unique case among Wright's Cuban materials, which were numbered by taxon and often comprise gatherings made at several different times. Liogier (1962: 145) cited Spermacoce garro Maza as a synonym of Nodocarpaea radicans, but that name corresponds nomenclaturally to Diodia radicans Chem. &Schltdl., now treated taxonomically as Dioida serrulata (P. Beauv.) G. Taylor. 

Nodocarpaea is similar to Dentella, with acute to rounded stipules and 5-merous flowers with develop calyx limbs, and to Nertera, with 4-5-merous flowers and orange drupaceous fruits. 

Author: C.M. Taylor
The content of this web page was last revised on 19 December 2023.
Taylor web page: http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/taylor.shtml

• Liogier, A. H. 1962 [1963]. Rubiales – Valerianales – Cucurbitales – Campanulales – Asterales. Fl. Cuba 5: 1–362.
• Borhidi, A. L., M. Fernández Zequeira & R. Oviedo Prieto. 2017. Rubiác. Cuba 1–494.