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Dorstenia choconiana

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Moraceae

Trees , shrubs , vines , or rarely herbs, frequently with milky or watery latex, sometimes spiny . Stipules present, frequently caducous . Leaves alternate, rarely opposite; petiole often present and well-defined; leaf blade simple , sometimes with cystoliths , margin entire or palmately lobed , venation pinnate or palmate. Inflorescences axillary , frequently paired , racemose, spicate , capitate, or rarely cymose , sometimes a fig or syconium with flowers completely enclosed within a hollow receptacle. Flowers unisexual (plants monoecious or dioecious), small to very small. Calyx lobes (1 or) 2-4(-8), free or connate , imbricate or valvate . Corolla absent. Male flowers: stamens as many as and opposite to calyx lobes (except in Artocarpus), straight or inflexed in bud; anthers 1- or 2-loculed, crescent-shaped to top-shaped; pistillode (rudimentary sterile pistil) often present. Female flowers: calyx lobes usually 4; ovary superior, semi-inferior, or inferior, 1(or 2) -loculed; ovules 1 per locule, anatropous or campylotropous; style branches 1 or 2; stigmas usually filiform . Fruit usually a drupe, rarely an achene, enveloped by an enlarged calyx and/or immersed in a fleshy receptacle, often joined into a syncarp. Seed solitary; endosperm present or absent.

Between 37 and 43 genera and 1100–1400 species: widespread in tropical and subtropical areas, less common in temperate areas; nine genera and 144 species (26 endemic, five introduced ) in China.

Economically, the most important species are those of Morus and Maclura associated with the production of silk . Some species in Broussonetia, Maclura, and Morus are important for paper making; some species in Artocarpus, Ficus, and Morus have edible fruit; and some species of Artocarpus and Broussonetia are used for furniture or timber.[1]

Genus Dorstenia

Herbs, perennial , rhizomatous ; stems short, fleshy , aerial stems not evident; sap milky . Leaves alternate; stipules persistent , free . Leaf blade ovate to orbiculate, margins entire or pinnately lobed ; venation palmate near base of blade, otherwise pinnate. Inflorescences axillary , flowers embedded in long-pedunculate, flat receptacle. Flowers: staminate and pistillate on same plant. Staminate flowers : calyx minute, 2-3-lobed; stamens 1-3, inflexed in bud. Pistillate flowers: calyx tubular, 4-lobed; ovary inferior, embedded in receptacle, 1-locular; style 2-branched. Syncarps disc- or cup-shaped; drupes embedded in enlarged, fleshy, common receptacle. Seeds explosively expelled.

Species ca. 170: tropical .[2]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : S.Watson Publication : Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 22: 477 1887

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Dorstenia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 15 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

D. alexiteria (Dorstenia) · D. bahiensis (Dorstenia) · D. contrajerva (Contra Hierba) · D. crispa (Dorstenia) · D. elata (Congo Fig) · D. foetida (Dorstenia) · D. gigas (Dorstenia) · D. gypsophila (Dorstenia) · D. horwoodii (Dorstenia) · D. houstonii (Dorstenia) · D. maculata (Dorstenia) · D. obovata (Dorstenia) · D. palmata (Dorstenia) · D. quadrangularis (Dorstenia) · D. zanzibarica (Dorstenia)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 04, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Zhengyi Wu, Zhe-Kun Zhou & Michael G. Gilbert "Moraceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 21. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Dorstenia". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-21