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Magnoliopsida
Merremia Dennst. ex Endl.
EOL Text
Robust twining perennial herb with stems up to 10 m long. Stems and petioles, hairless covered in small spine-like reddish-brown tubercles; older stems becoming woody. Leaves up to 13 cm in diameter, deeply palmately or pedately 7-9-lobed, lobes often pinnately lobed again, hairless. Flowers solitary or in few-flowered axillary clusters on a long peduncle, up to 8 cm. Corolla funnel-shaped, 6-8 cm in diameter, whitish to pale yellow with a dark purple centre.
kentrocaulos: with spiny stems; pinnatifida: pinnately lobed, referring to secondary lobes on each primary lobe.
Herbs, twining and often prostrate (in ours). Leaves variable in shape and size, entire or lobed. Flowers axillary, solitary or in axillary usually cymose inflorescences. Sepals 5, usually subequal. Corolla nearly always yellow or white with or without a red or purple centre. Anthers at anthesis helically twisted; pollen tricolpate. Ovary 2-4-locular. Style 1, simple, filiform; stigmas 2, spherical. Capsule 4-valved or irregularly dehiscent. Seeds 4.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings, Flora of Zimbabwe |
| Source | http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=1182 |
Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, South Africa. Also in India.
Merremia
Bejucos volubles, con látex lechoso o acuoso, a veces con pelos glandulosos. Hojas alternas, pecioladas; láminas simples, palmatilobadas o palmaticompuestas; estípulas ausentes. Flores bisexuales, actinomorfas, 5-meras, solitarias o en cimas dicasiales compuestas, axilares; pedúnculos usualmente alargados. Cáliz usualmente acrescente, los sépalos iguales o desiguales; corola campanulada o infundibuliforme, el limbo entero o levemente 5-lobado; estambres insertos, los filamentos sub-iguales, las anteras lanceoladas, retorcidas después de abrir; ovario súpero, 2-locular, el estilo solitario con dos estigmas subglobosos. Frutos capsulares, ovoides a globosos, 4-valvados o irregularmente dehiscentes; semillas 4 por fruto, triangulares, glabras o aterciopeladas. Género pantropical con alrededor de 80 especies.
Merremia
Twining vines, with milky or watery latex, sometimes with glandular hairs. Leaves alternate, petiolate; blades simple, palmately lobed or compound; stipules absent. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, 5-merous, solitary or in compound dichasial cymes, axillary; peduncles usually elongate. Calyx usually accrescent, the sepals equal or unequal; corolla campanulate or infundibuliform, the limb entire or slightly 5-lobed; stamens inserted, the filaments subequal, the anthers lanceolate, twisted after opening; ovary superior, 2-locular, the style solitary, with two subglobose stigmas. Fruits capsular, ovoid to globose, 4-valvate or irregularly dehiscent; seeds 4 per fruit, triangular, glabrous or velvety. A pantropical genus of about 80 species.
Seed case protects from seawater: Mary's bean
The seed cases of Mary's Bean provide protection and keep seeds afloat as they drift on ocean currents.
"Protection from air and water: Seed cases are champions of air- and water-tight storage. Among the record-holders: a lotus that germinated after 1288 years, a Polynesian box fruit that germinated after two years at sea, and the Mary’s Bean, a liana seed which stayed afloat from the Marshall Islands to the beaches of Norway, more than 15,000 miles!" (Biomimicry Guild unpublished report)
Learn more about this functional adaptation.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | (c) 2008-2009 The Biomimicry Institute |
| Source | http://www.asknature.org/strategy/981e8f41430e5be7643da8fe8013467c |
United States
Origin: Exotic
Regularity: Regularly occurring
Currently: Unknown/Undetermined
Confidence: Confident
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | NatureServe |
| Source | http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Merremia+tuberosa |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records:49
Specimens with Sequences:54
Specimens with Barcodes:53
Species:15
Species With Barcodes:14
Public Records:23
Public Species:9
Public BINs:0
Distribución: Planta ornamental, a veces naturalizada en áreas alteradas. También en St. Croix y St. John. Nativa de América tropical pero se encuentra ampliamente distribuida a través de los trópicos.