Paullinia caloptera
Content
Description
Woody vine 5-15 m long. Stems trigonous to sub terete, glabrous, producing scarce milky latex; cross section with a single vascular cylinder, the medulla usually hollow upon drying; older stems trisulcate to deeply trilobed, to 6 cm in diameter. Stipules subulate or lanceolate, 10-15 mm long, persistent. Leaves pinnately 5-foliolate; petioles unwinged, 1.5-10 cm long; rachis narrowly winged or marginate, 2.5-5 cm long; petiolules 2-5 mm long, glabrous, drying dark brown; leaflets chartaceous, both surfaces glabrous or puberulent along the prominent venation on abaxial surface; abaxial surface with minute, dark papillae, elliptic or lanceolate, 7.5-17 × 2.5-6 cm (distal leaflet larger), the apex acuminate, the base attenuate or acute on distal leaflet, obtuse or rounded on lateral ones, the margins remotely serrate, with mucronate teeth. Thyrses puberulent, racemiform, axillary and solitary or cauliflorous, sometimes forming fascicles; cincinni long-stipitate (3-5 mm long), many-flowered, secund; bracts and bracteoles minute, deltate. Calyx light green, glabrous or puberulent, sepals 5, oblong, concave, ciliolate on margins, outer sepals 2-2.2 mm long, inner sepals ca. 3.5 mm long; petals white, obovate, ca. 4 mm long; appendages hood-shaped, ½ as long as the petals, with a fleshy, yellow crest at the apex; disc tomentulose, of 2 rounded and 2 ovoid lobes; stamens with flattened filaments. Capsule red, glabrous, coriaceous, 1.3-1.7 cm long, long-stipitate (5-7 mm long), elliptic in outline, locules 3, slightly flattened, each locule with a dorsal wing that extends throughout its length; endocarp velvety pubescent. Seed usually one per fruit, ellipsoid, ca. 8 mm long, dark brown or black, sparsely appressed-pubescent, with a thick, white, bilobed sarcotesta on lower ⅓.
Distribution
Guianas present, Neotropics present, Southern America: Bolivia (Bolivia present); Colombia (Colombia present); Costa Rica (Costa Rica present); Ecuador (Ecuador present); Panamá (Panamá present); Peru (Peru present); Venezuela (Venezuela present), Tobago present
Widely occurring in the Neotropics, known from Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Tobago, the Guianas, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia (GU: 1; SU: 5; FG: 6).