Diagnostic description ¹

Metastelma lineare Bello, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 292. 1881.

Fig. 31. A-F

Synonym: Cynanchum lineare (Bello) Alain

Slender vine, twining, 2-5 m in length, with abundant milky latex. Stems green, cylindrical, more or less glabrous, 1 mm or less in diameter. Leaves perennial, opposite or subwhorled; blades 1.5-4.5 cm × 1.5-2 mm, linear, the apex acute or obtuse, subapiculate, the base obtuse or acute, the margins entire, revolute; upper surface glabrous with the midvein sunken, with a short acicular gland (or sometimes without a gland) where it joins the petiole; lower surface pale, with a prominent midvein, the secondary venation inconspicuous; petioles ca. 2 mm long, slender; intrapetiolar stipules acicular, 0.2 mm long. Flowers few, in subsessile cymes; pedicels slender, 1.5-2.5 mm long. Calyx green, crateriform, the sepals ovate, ca. 1 mm long; corolla white inside, yellowish green outside, 3.5 mm long, the lobes lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm long, reflexed at the apex, the inner surface puberulous from the middle portion toward the apex, strigose from the middle portion toward the base; corona white, the segments narrowly lanceolate, 1.2-2 mm long, longer than the gynostegium; gynostegium sessile. Follicles linear, 3-5 cm long, glabrous, splitting in half to expose numerous dark brown, ovate seeds, 5-5.5 mm long, with long, silky hairs at the apex.

Phenology: Flowering throughout the year and fruiting from September to March.

Status: Native, relatively common.

Selected Specimens Examined: Acevedo-Rdgz., P. 382; 3746; 7204; 9361; 11414; Axelrod, F. 5386; Britton, E.G. 744; Britton, N.L. 2548; 2700; Sargent, F.H. 392; Stevenson, J.A. 2040; Underwood, L.M. 50; Webster, G.L. 8854.

Distribution ²

Distribution: In secondary forests at middle and upper elevations, in central and western Puerto Rico. Also on Mona and St. Thomas; Cuba.

Public forest: Guánica, Maricao, Mona, Río Abajo, Susúa, and Toro Negro.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435115
2. (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435686

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