Paullinia sphaerocarpa
Content
Description
Woody vine or liana to 10 m long. Stems terete, finely pubescent, glabrescent, lenticellate, with scanty clear to milky exudate; cross section with a single vascular cylinder. Stipules minute, early deciduous. Leaves pinnately 5-foliolate; petioles marginate or unwinged, 2.5-10 cm long; rachis winged or unwinged, shorter than the petiole; leaflets chartaceous, discolorous, glabrous, abaxial surface light green, sparsely lineate-punctate, scattered papillate, elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 4-11.5 × 1.5-4.5 cm, the base attenuate on distal leaflets, cuneate, obtuse or rounded, asymmetrical on lateral ones, the apex obtusely acuminate, the margins repando-dentate, the teeth glandular; tertiary veins reticulate. Thyrses spicate, densely flowered, tomentulose; bracts and bracteoles minute; cincinni sessile, few-flowered. Sepals 4, minutely sericeous, outer sepals ovate, ca. 1 mm long, inner sepals obovate2.5-3.5 mm long; petals spatulate, 2.5-3 mm long; disc glabrous, with twoovate lobes surrounding the base of the petal; filaments pilose. Capsules green, globose, unwinged, smooth, crustose, (drying wrinkled)glabrous, shortly stipitate, 1-seeded, 1.5-2.2 cm long, the stipe 2 mm long; endocarp densely lanose. Seed oblate, black, wooly-pubescent, apparently lacking a sarcotesta.
Distribution
Amazonian Peru present, French Guiana present, Southern America: Brazil North (Acre present, Amazonas present, Pará present); Ecuador (Ecuador present); Venezuela (Venezuela present), Suriname present
Known from Venezuela, Suriname and French Guiana, the Brazilian states of Acre, Amazonas and Pará, Ecuador, and Amazonian Peru (GU: 1; SU: 8; FG: 7).