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Flora Data (Last Modified On 12/18/2012)
Genus COMBRETUM Loefl.
PlaceOfPublication Iter. Hispan. 308. 1758, nom. conserv.
Synonym Grislea L. Sp. PI. 348. 1753; Gen. PI. 164. 1754. Aetia Adans. Fam. 2:84, 513. 1763. Cacoucia Aubl. P1. Guian. 1:450. t. I79. 1775. Hambergera Scop. Introd. Hist. Nat. 106. 1777. Cristaria Sonner. Voy. Ind. Orient. 2:247. t. I40. 1782. Hambergia Neck. Elem. Bot. 141. 1790. Schousboea Willd. in L. Sp. P1. 2:578. 1799. Poivrea Comm. [ex Juss. Gen. P1. 320. 1789, in syn. (sphalm. "Pevraea")] ex Thou., Obs. P1. Il. Austr. Afr. 28. 1811. Gonocarpus Ham. Prodr. P1. Ind. Occ. 39. 1825. Forsgardia Vell. Fl. Flum. 4:1 52. 1 825; t. I3. 1 83 5. Chrysostachys Pohl, Fl. Bras. 2:65. t. 143. 1831. Sheadendron Bertol. f. in Mem. Acad. Bologn. 2:574. t. 4. 1850. Embryogonia Bi. Mus. Lugd. Bat. 2:122. 1852. Bureava Baill. in Adans. 1: 171. 18 60-6 1. Seguiera Reichb. ex Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. 2:424. 1871 in syn., non Adans. (1763). Campylochiton Welw. ex Hiern, Cat. Afr. P1. Welw. 2:353. 1898.
Description Trees, shrubs or woody climbers, very rarely subherbaceous. Leaves opposite, verticillate or more rarely alternate, usually petiolate, almost always entire, often conspicuously lepidote. Petioles sometimes persisting after leaf-fall, forming thorns. Flowers usually perfect, actinomorphic or rarely slightly zygomorphic, in elongated or subcapitate, axillary or extra-axillary spikes or racemes or in terminal or terminal and axillary, often leafy panicles. Receptacle usually clearly divided into a lower part (lower receptacle) surrounding and adnate to the ovary and an upper part (upper receptacle) varying from patelliform to elongate-infundibuli- form terminating in the calyx-lobes. Upper receptacle often further differentiated into a lower part containing the disk and a usually more expanded upper part. Calyx-lobes usually 4 or 5 (rarely more) deltoid to filiform or sometimes scarcely developed. Petals usually 4 or 5 (very rarely absent but never in Panama species except perhaps by abortion) small and inconspicuous or showy and exceeding the calyx-lobes, white, yellow, orange, red or purple, glabrous or hairy, occasionally scaly. Stamens usually twice as many as the petals, inserted inside the upper receptacle, often biseriate, usually exserted; anthers dorsifixed, versatile. Disk intrastaminal, glabrous or hairy, sometimes very small or absent. Ovary com- pletely inferior, probably of 1 carpel, unilocular with usually 2 (occasionally up to 6) pendulous ovules of which only 1 develops. Style simple, free, usually ex- serted, rarely very short. Fruit (pseudocarp) 4- to 5-winged, -ridged or -angled, sessile or stipitate, usually indehiscent, 1-seeded; pericarp usually thin and papery, sometimes leathery, more rarely fleshy.
Habit Trees shrubs
Habit climbers herb
Distribution About 250 species throughout the tropics (except Australia); extending in the New World from Mexico to Argentina.
Key a. Flowers tetramerous. b. Flowers measuring at least 7 mm. from the rhachis to the tips of the calyx-lobes, conspicuously scaly; disk well developed, margin pilose. c. Scales of inflorescence usually golden-brown (in dried specimens). Petals rarely more than 1.5 mm. long ...........................-.. 1. C. FRUTICOSUM cc. Scales of inflorescence red (in dried specimens). Petals 4-5 mm. long -2. C. SAMBUENSE bb. Flowers much smaller, less than 5 mm. from the rhachis to the tips of the calyx-lobes, not conspicuously scaly, in terminal panicles; disk inconspicuous, glabrous ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. C. LAXUM aa. Flowers pentamerous. b. Flowers actinomorphic, small, measuring less than 5 mm. from the rhachis to the tips of the calyx-lobes. Fruit broadly winged. c. Lower receptacle, nearly glabrous or patent-.pubescent, slightly pedicellate and narrowed at the apex.......................................... 5. C. DECANDRUM cc. Lower receptacle appressed-pubescent, sessile, scarcely narrowed at the apex ................. .... 6. C. SPINOSUM bb. Flowers slightly zygomorphic, relatively large, up to 3 cm. from the rhachis to the tips of the calyx-lobes. Fruit narrowly winged or ridged. ..............................A............................................ 3. C. CACOUCIA