Paullinia stenopetala
Content
Description
Liana or shrub, 7-8 m long. Stems nearly terete, slightly sulcate, puberulous, becoming glabrous and lenticellate with age; cross section with a single vascular cylinder. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 3 mm long, deciduous. Leaves pinnately 5-foliolate; petiole unwinged, 1.8-5.5 cm long, pulvinate at base, puberulent; rachis narrowly winged or unwinged, 1.5-3.5 cm long, puberulent; petiolules 2-3 mm long, puberulent; leaflets chartaceous, glabrous except for the barbate vein axils, 5.5-12.5 × 2.5-4.2 cm, the apex obtusely acuminate, the margins remotely dentate to nearly entire; tertiary veins subclathrate; distal leaflet oblong to nearly oblanceolate, with attenuate base, lateral leaflets elliptic, or oblong-elliptic, with obtuse base. Thyrses axillary, paniculate or spicate; cincinni sessile, 4-6-flowered. Calyx light green to whitish, abaxially pubescent, sepals 5, oblong, concave, glandular-ciliolate on margins, the outer sepals ca. 1 mm long, the inner sepals ca. 2.5 mm long; petals white, oblong-oblanceolate, ca. 2.2 mm long, glabrous, except for the sparsely papillate adaxial surface; appendages ½ as long as the petals, with a fleshy, yellow bifid crest and ciliate margins; disc of 2 rounded and 2 ovoid lobes; torus pilose; filaments glabrous. Capsules ellipsoid, unwinged, 6-costate, orange, 1.4-2 cm long, stipitate (stipe 2-3 mm long), sericeous-pubescent, coriaceous, seemingly one-seeded; endocarp wooly-pubescent. Seed nearly globose, ca. 7 mm long, black, with a white, bilobed sarcotesta on lower ½.