Merremia flagellaris

Nomenclature

Accepted name/Authority/Place of publication:

Merremia flagellaris (Choisy) O' Donell, Lilloa 6:. 526. 1941 (Fig. 47).

Synonyms:

Ipomoea flagellaris Choisy, Mém. Soc. Phys. Genève 8: 138. 1838. TYPE: Brazil. Bahia, Moricand (holotype, G-DC).

Ipomoea albiflora var. stricta Choisy in DeCandolle, Prodr. 9: 352. 1845. TYPE. Brasil. Minas Gerais: Serro Frio, Martius 11 (M).

Trailing or twining herbs, much branched from a perennial rootstock, usually totally glabrous or occasionally densely glandular on all vegetative parts, stems cylindrical, faintly longitudinally striate, decumbent to scandent.

Leaves:

Petioles absent or much reduced, when present to 4 mm long. Leaves palmately lobed to the base, leaflets (4-)5-7(-9), linear, the median the longest, 25-40 mm in length.

Inflorescences:

Inflorescence an axillary dichasium or flowers solitary; peduncles 2-17 mm long, or lacking, bracts two, linear-filiform, 8-15 mm long; pedicels short, thickened distally, 1-5 mm long

Flowers:

sepals ! equal, ovate-lanceolate, basally truncate, apically long attenuate, 15-20 mm long, 2-4 mm wide at the base; corolla funnelform, margins entire, white, glabrous, 18-26 mm long, to 20 mm in diameter; stamens unequal (two short, two medium, one long), included within the corolla tube, filaments adnate to the corolla for one third to one half their length, bearded where fused, glabrous and simple above, 11-13 mm long; anthers spirally dehiscent, whitish, 2-3 mm long; pollen 3-colpate, smooth; ovary lobed-globose, glabrous, 1 mm in diameter; style simple, filamentous, glabrous, 14-15 mm long; stigma biglobose.

Pollen:

Pollen 3-colpate, smooth

Fruits:

Fruit a globose, brown, four-valved, two chambered capsule, each chamber with one or two seeds, 6-8 mm in diameter

Seeds:

Seeds brown, glabrous, 2-3 mm long.

Author:

Staples, G.W. & D.F. Austin.

References:

Austin, D. F. & G. W. Staples. Convolvulaceae in Flora Neotropica [unpublished data].