Merremia

Accepted name/Authority/Place of publication:

MERREMIA Dennst. ex Endl., Gen. Pl. 1: 1403. 1841, nom. cons.

Tribe:

Merremieae

Synonyms:

Skinneria Choisy, Mém. Soc. Phys. Genève 6: 487. 1834.

Spiranthera Bojer, Hort. Maurit. 226, p.p. 1837.

Habit:

Herbs or lianas, often twining, sometimes prostrate.

Leaves:

Leaves usually petiolate, rarely sessile, margin entire or dentate, lobed, or palmately or pedately lobed or compound.

Inflorescences:

Inflorescences axillary, few- to many-flowered, cymose; bracts usually small.

Flowers:

Flower sepals variable in shape, often markedly convex, nearly equal or outer 2 sepals smaller, persistent, often enlarged in fruit. Corolla funnelform or campanulate, often yellow or white, sometimes with a darker centre, usually glabrous or minutely hair-tufted at apex, rarely midpetaline bands sericeous outside, limb entire or 5-angled, veins often distinct in midpetaline bands; stamens included, often unequal, filaments dilated basally, filiform distally, anthers often spirally twisted; pollen 3–12-colpate or polyrugate, not spiny; pistil included, disc annular, ovary (imperfectly 2–)4-celled, 4-ovuled, style 1, filiform, stigmas 2-globular.

Pollen:

Pollen 3–12-colpate or polyrugate, not spiny.

Fruits:

Capsule 1–4-celled, usually 4-valved or +/- irregularly dehiscing.

Seeds:

Seeds 4 or fewer, glabrous or pubescent to villous especially at margin.

Distribution:

Tropics and warm temperate zones. map

Number of Species:

100

Infrageneric Characters:

Often confused with Ipomoea, which has pantoporate, spiny pollen, straight anthers and very few species with yellow corollas, and Operculina, which consistently has a fruit with a circumscissile lid that detaches first, leaving a brittle endocarp that shatters irregularly, and many species with sericeous-hairy midpetaline bands on the corolla. The distribution of hairs on the corolla is taxonomically important in Merremia; this is most easily discerned on mature flower buds.

Commentary:

The geus Merremia is almost certainly polyphyletic, both on morphological grounds as well as the molecular data available to date (Stefanovic et al., 2002). Revisionary study now underway will elucidate generic delimitation and systematic relationships in tribe Merremieae.

References:

Ooststr., Blumea 3: 292. 1939.

Ooststr., Fl. Males. I, 4: 439. 1953.

Staples, Garden's Bull. Singapore 61: 483-522. 2010.

Songkhla & Khunwasi, Thai Forest Bull. (Bot.) 20: 30. 1993.

R.C. Fang & Staples in C.Y. Wu & P.H. Raven (eds.), Fl. China 16: 291. 1995.

Stefanovic, S. et al., Amer. J. Bot. 89: 1510-1522. 2002.

Author/Editor

Author:

G.W. Staples

Editor:

G. Staples & Esmond Er

Publication:

Flora of Thailand 10(3): 431-432. 2010.

Contributors:

Convolvulaceae Unlimited

Convolvulaceae

Merremia

Primary tabs

Merremia

Author/Editor

Merremia countries map

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Convolvulaceae

Merremia

Primary tabs

Author/Editor