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Thunbergia alata

Diagnostic description 4

Thunbergia alata Bojer ex Sims, Bot. Mag. 52, t. 2591. 1825.

Fig. 14. G-L

Herbaceous vine, creeping or climbing, twining, 2-3 m in length. Stems cylindrical, slender (ca. 2 mm), puberulous. Leaves opposite; blades 4.5-10.5 × 3.2-6 cm, ovate, lobed, chartaceous, the apex acute, the base subcordiform; upper surface dark green, dull, pubescent; lower surface pale green, dull, with prominent venation; petioles 4-8 cm long, winged, pubescent. Flowers axillary, solitary; pedicels pubescent, 4-5 cm long; bracts green, ovate, pubescent, 1.5 cm long, covering the calyx and the corolla tube. Calyx yellowish green, with 12 filiform lobes, ca. 4 mm long; corolla orange, pale yellow, or less frequently whitish, infundibuliform, with 5 lobes, the tube ca. 2.5 cm long, narrow at the base, dark violet inside, the lobes ca. 2.5 cm long with the apex truncate, the limb ca. 5 cm in diameter; stamens with glandular hairs on the basal portion. Capsules ca. 4 mm long, depressed-globose to 4-lobed at the base, the upper half in the form of a beak, dehiscent by two valves; seeds 2 or 4, 1.2-1.5 mm long, semicircular, reticulate.

Phenology: Flowering sporadically throughout the year.

Status: Exotic, very common, naturalized in Puerto Rico.

Selected Specimens Examined: Acevedo-Rdgz., P. 3050; 7002; 7135; Boom, B. 9895; Eggers, B. 760; Fisher, M.J. 21; 22; 23; Goll, G.P. 71; 152; Heller, A.A. 624; 6312; 6392; Liogier, A.H. 30010; Prey, N. 82; Sargent, F.H. 189; Sintenis, P. 158; Stevenson, J.A. 98; 306; 3328; Underwood, L.M. 757.

Distribution 5

Distribution: Throughout Puerto Rico, especially in moist disturbed areas, at lower to upper elevations. Also on St. Croix. Native to eastern Africa, but introduced throughout the tropics.

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

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Joel Abroad, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/40295335@N00/7064864581
  2. (c) Forest & Kim Starr, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/55973.jpg
  3. (c) Forest & Kim Starr, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/54716.jpg
  4. (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435061
  5. (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435651

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