Cynanchum cubense
(A. Rich.) Woodson
Family:
Apocynaceae
Flora of Barro Colorado Island
Resources
The Flora of Barro Colorado Island by Thomas Croat
Large herbaceous vine, climbing to ca 8 m in forest; cut parts with abundant milky sap, this drying chalklike; stems glabrous. Leaves opposite; petioles 4.5-8 (12) cm long; blades ovate to suborbicular, acuminate and downturned at apex, cordate at base, 7-15 cm long, 3.5-12 cm wide (juvenile blades to 30 cm long, 20 cm wide), glabrous, with a series of platelike glands at base above, the sides of the blade held somewhat upward. Inflorescences axillary, racemose, becoming panicles of racemes, to 35 cm long, the branches puberulent; pedicels ca 5 mm long; flowers greenish, 5-parted; calyx lobes glabrous,1.5-3 mm long; petals +/- oblong, ca 3 mm long, flexed at anthesis, the apical half with crisp white trichomes on upper surface; corona shallowly 5-lobed, the lobes ca 6 mm long; gynostegium broadened and ca 2.7 mm wide at apex; pollinia pendulous. Follicles ovate-oblong, terete, acuminate, smooth, 15-21 cm long, 7-10 cm diam; seeds bearing a coma of silky trichomes. Croat 11175. Cuba, Panama, Colombia, and perhaps southern Mexico. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Coclé, and Panama.
Open Interactive Map
Click to Display
2 Total Images