Merremia grandiflora

Nomenclature

Accepted name/Authority/Place of publication:

Merremia grandiflora Ooststr., Rec. Trav. Bot. Néerl. 30: 203. f. 2. 1933. TYPE. Peru. Lima: Weberbauer 5218 (holotype B, destroyed; isotypes F, GH, U, US).

Prostrate perennial herbs (or subshrubs ?), to 2-3 m long, stems longitudinally striate, verrucose, glabrous or hirsutulous at the tips, "sticky" in life (=glandulose), to 3 mm in diameter. Petioles slender, verruculose, with a groove on the ventral surface, 22-42 mm long.

Leaves:

Leaves five lobed or cleft, the bases truncate or cordate, the lobes serrate, glabrous, 60-75 mm long and 60-115 mm wide.

Inflorescences:

Flowers solitary or in dichasia; peduncles verruculose, equal to or exceeding the subtending petioles, 25-45 mm long; bracts not seen; pedicels clavate, glandular pubescent, 10-16 mm long.

Flowers:

Sepals ovate-elliptic, unequal, basally truncate, the outer two shorter, glandulose, 15-28 mm long and 8-14 mm wide, the inner three glabrous with membranous margins, apices rounded to obtuse, 20-34 mm long and 10-13 mm wide; corolla broadly campanulate, white, glabrous, 68-76 mm long and nearly as broad; stamens ± equal, included; filaments simple, partially fused to the corolla tube and pubescent where adnate, glabrous and free above, 9-11 mm long; anthers spirally dehiscent, white, 10-15 mm long: pollen three colpate, smooth; ovary conical, glabrous, two locular, each with two ovules; disc annular; style simple, filiform, glabrous, 16 mm long; stigma biglobose, lobed and papillose.

Pollen:

pollen three colpate, smooth

Fruits:

Fruit and seeds not seen.

Seeds:

Fruit and seeds not seen.

Author:

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

References:

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 Convolvulaceae in Flora Neotropica [unpublished data].