Diagnostic description ²

Matelea variifolia (Schltr.) Woodson, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 28: 226. 1941.

Fig. 29. I-L

Herbaceous vine, twining, 3-4 m in length, with abundant milky latex. Stems slender, cylindrical, puberulous, glabrescent, 2 mm or less in diameter; pubescence of curved, reflexed hairs. Leaves opposite; blades 4.5-10 × 2-4.5 cm, lanceolate, elliptical, or oblong, membranaceous, the apex acute or acuminate, the base acute, rounded, or cordiform, the margins entire; upper surface dark green, glabrous, with 2 acicular glands at the union with the petiole; lower surface pale green, glaucous, glabrous; petioles 0.8-4 cm long, with 2 lines of hairs along the upper surface. Flowers few, arranged in short-pedunculate cymes; pedicels 6-8 mm long. Calyx green, rotate, of 5 oblong-ovate sepals, 2-2.5 mm long; corolla rotate, pale green with dark green venation, 10-14 mm in diameter, the lobes rounded, imbricate, ca. 5 mm long; corona annular, green. Fruits unknown.

Phenology: Flowering from May to October.

Status: Endemic to Puerto Rico, uncommon.

Distribution ³

Distribution: In moist forests in the cordilleras and on mogotes.

Public forest: El Yunque, Guilarte, Maricao, Río Abajo, and Toro Negro.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/services/media.php?env=botany&irn=10648764
2. Adapted by millerse from a work by (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435110
3. (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435682

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