Cheiloclinium hippocrateoides
Content
Description
Liana; branchlets terete, slightly swollen at nodes. Petiole 7-16 mm long; blades chartaceous to coriaceous, often discolorous, usually olivaceous or glaucous, sometimes yellowish when dried, narrowly to broadly elliptic(-oblong), 7-20 x 3-11 cm, margins entire to crenulate, apex cuspidate, acute or acuminatewith acumen to 1.5 cm long, base obtuse or acute, decurrent into the petiole; primary vein prominent on both surfaces, secondary veins 5-11 per side, flattened to prominulous above, prominulous to prominent below, tertiary veins inconspicuous. Inflorescence dichotomously branched, with long, slender branchlets, to 5.5 cm long; peduncle to 0.8 cm long; bracts and bracteoles to 0.2 mm long; pedicels to 0.5 mm long. Flowers 2-2.5 mm diam.; sepals ovate-deltoid, to 0.7 x 1.1 mm; petals fleshy or slightly so, greenish white to yellow or orange, ovate-elliptic or suborbicular, 0.8-1.5 mm, glabrous or puberulous without; margins strongly erosulous; disk 0.3-0.5 mm high, consisting of 3 staminiferous pockets; filaments 0.2-0.4 mm long, anthers ca. 0.1 x 0.2 mm; ovary 0.5-1 mm diam., ovules 2 per locule, superposed, stigma tips deeply bilobed, sometimes slightly so. Fruit on thickened pedicel, ellipsoid, to 3 x 2 cm, green, maturing yellow or orange, (brown spotted), often with 6-10 lines or folds originating from the base; seeds ellipsoid, to 2 cm long, orange-red.
Distribution
Guianas present present, Southern America: Bolivia (Bolivia present); Brazil Northeast (Bahia present); Colombia (Colombia present); Panamá (Panamá present); Peru (Peru present); Venezuela (Venezuela present), western Amazon present
Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, from the Guianas to the western Amazon in Peru and Bolivia, also in Brazil east to Bahia; ca. 50 collections studied, 27 from the Guianas (GU: 10; SU: 4; FG: 13).
Notes
A.C. Smith recognized C. gleasonianum apart from C. hippocrateoides based on the presence ofbilobed instead of slightly emarginate stigmas. In the large number of collections studied this distinction cannot be upheld, and we, therefore, consider both names as synonyms.
The distinction betweenC. krukovii and C. hippocrateoides based on inflorescence characteristics is not warranted when more collections are studied. The leaves are very variable in shape and texture. The 2 collections assigned to C. krukovii by Smith show wide leaf variation. However, the type specimen of C. krukovii (Krukoff 8817) is identical to C. hippocrateoides .
The distinction between