Serjania caracasana

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Serjania caracasana

Description

Woody vine or liana 10-15 m long. Stems terete, furrowed, glabrous or puberulent, reaching up to 15 cm in diam. at base, producing abundant milky sap; cross section with a central terete vascular cylinder surrounded by 8 cuneate vascular cylinders that are slightly smaller than the central one. Stipules deltoid, ca. 1 mm long. Leaves pinnately 5-foliolate (also biternate outside the range of the flora); petiole and rachis adaxially canaliculate, shorter than the leaflets length; leaflets coriaceous, glabrous, acute or obtusely acuminate at apex, 4.5-10.5 × 1-5.2 cm, the margins remotely and distally serrate; distal leaflets elliptic or ovate, with attenuate base; medial leaflets oblong or elliptic, with attenuate base; basal leaflets oblong or oblong-lanceolate, with obtuse to rounded base and elongated petiolule. Thyrses axillary, racemiform or less often paniculate, 12-35 cm long, with puberulent or glabrous axes; cincinni tomentulose, alternate, elongated, secund, 5-15 mm long; bracts and bracteoles ovate-deltate, ca. 1 mm long. Flowers up to 15 per cincinni; pedicels 3-4 mm long, glabrous to tomentulose, articulate at base; sepals 5, whitish, 2.5-4 mm long, ovate or oblong, rounded at apex, tomentose or nearly glabrous; petals white, spatulate, ca. 4 mm long, adaxially papillate; appendages with fleshy, yellow crest; disc of 4ovoid lobes; stamens sparsely pubescent. Mericarps glabrous, ca. 2.5 cm long, the cocci subglobose.

Distribution

Guyana present, Northern America, Southern America: Cuba (Cuba present), northern Argentina present
A polymorphic species, widely distributed from Mexico to northern Argentina, Guyana, and Cuba.

Wood

Woody vine or liana .1
1. 001