Operculina macrocarpa

Nomenclature

Accepted name/Authority/Place of publication:

Operculina macrocarpa (L.) Urban, Symb. Antill. 3: 343. 1902.

Synonyms:

Convolvulus macrocarpos L., Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 2: 923. 1759. TYPE. based on Plumier, Pl. Amer. ed. Burmann, p. 80, pl. 91, fig. 1. 1756 (plate is lectotype).

Convolvulus operculatus Gómez, Mem. Math. Phis. Acad Real Sci. Lisboa 3: Obs. 1. plate 27, fig.3. 1818. TYPE. Brazil. (No specimen found; the illustration would be suitable as lectotype).

Ipomoea operculata (Gomez) Martius in von Spix and Martius, Reise Brasil. 2: 547. 1828.

Operculina convolvulus S. Manso, Enum. Subst. Brazil. 16, 49. 1836, a new name for Convolvulus operculatus Gomez.

Description

Habit:

Suffruticose herbs; the stems glabrous, twining, reddish, terete to 4-angled to narrowly 4-winged.

Leaves:

Leaves with petioles 2.5–7.5 cm long, the blade palmately (3–)5–7-lobed or -parted, the lateral lobes less distinct than the terminal and shorter, all oblong to elliptic, attenuate basally and apically, 3.8–10(–16) cm long, 1.2–5 cm wide, glabrous.

Flowers:

Flowers 1–3 in cymose clusters; the peduncles axillary, 5–13 cm long, terete below, membranaceous winged above; the pedicels 2.5–4 cm long, dilated above, undulate-winged, wings 1–2 mm wide; the bracts oblong, acuminate, 2–3 cm long; sepals glabrescent, broadly ovate, obtuse to rounded or emarginate apically, markedly convex and rounded basally, papery, straw-colored, 2–3.5 cm long, 1.4–2 cm wide, the margins scarious, becoming brown and coriaceous in Fruit; corollas campanulate, white, 4–7.5 cm long, puberulent on the interplicae; stamens subequal, filaments 11–12 mm long, basally glandular pubescent; the anthers 6–7 mm long, spirally dehiscent; Pollen 3-colpate.

Pollen:

Pollen 3-colpate.

Fruits:

Fruits operculate, depressed-globose, 2.5–3.8 cm in diameter, partly enclosed by the enlarged, smooth calyx, glabrous, 2-locular, the pericarp papery, thin, the epicarp brown, the endocarp papery, thin, white, 3–4-lobed

Seeds:

Seeds 1–4, black, minutely pubescent near the hilum, glabrous elsewhere, 1–1.3 cm in diameter, obtuse apically, broadly ovoid to ovoid-trigonous.

Author:

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

References:

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 Convolvulaceae in Flora Neotropica [unpublished data].