Rivina humilis

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Small, weedy herbaceous shrub from Central and South America with small clusters of tiny white flowers and bright orange or red berries less than a quarter of an inch in diameter. The berries yield a red dye and are reportedly poisonous to eat. In Mexico leaves have been used to treat wounds.

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

Family Phytolaccaceae

Herbs or shrubs , rarely trees , erect , rarely scandent , mostly glabrous , rarely dioecious. Leaves simple , alternate, entire; stipules absent or tiny. Inflorescences terminal , axillary , or leaf-opposed, racemose, cymose , panicled , or spicate . Flowers small, bisexual or rarely unisexual , actinomorphic , rarely zygomorphic. Tepals 4 or 5, persistent , free or connate at base , equal or unequal, imbricate in bud, green or sometimes other colored . Stamens 4 to many, inserted on a fleshy disk; filaments usually persistent, free or slightly connate at base; anthers 2-loculed, dorsifixed , longitudinally dehiscent . Ovary superior, globose ; carpels 1 to many, free or connate; ovule solitary in each carpel, basal, campylotropous. Styles persistent, short or absent, erect or curved , as many as carpels. Fruit fleshy, a berry or drupe, rarely a capsule. Seeds reniform or oblate , small; testa membranous or hard and fragile, smooth or wrinkly; embryo large, curved, surrounding copious mealy endosperm.

Seventeen genera and ca. 70 species: widespread in tropical and temperate regions , especially in the neotropics and S Africa; two genera (one introduced ) and five species (one endemic, two introduced) in China.[1]

Genus Rivina

Herbs or subshrubs , perennial , woody at base . Leaves alternate. Inflorescences axillary or terminal racemes , 5-50-flowered. Flowers: sepals 4; stamens 4; carpel 1, ovary 1-loculed; style present; stigma 1, capitate. Fruits berries , red to orange or yellow, subglobose. Seed 1.

Species 1: North America, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, Asia, Pacific Islands, Australia.

The fruits of Rivina have been called berries, drupes, or, by those unwilling to commit themselves, simply fruits. The most recent study of fruit morphology and anatomy (D. D. Nautiyal and S. C. Gupta 1984) uses the term "berry."[2]

Physical Description

Habitat

Woods , hammocks , thickets, shell ridges , roadsides, disturbed areas; 0-1700 m [3].

Biology

Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Culture: Space 24-36" apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 5.6 • Maximum pH: 8.5

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Light Shade.

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b. (map)

Taxonomy

Unambiguous Synonyms

1. R. portulaccoides Nuttall

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Sp. pl. 1:121. 1753

Name verified on 12-Mar-2004 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 12-Mar-2004

Similar Species

Members of the genus Rivina

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 43 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

R. acuminata · R. alliacea · R. apetala · R. aurantiaca · R. bengalensis · R. brasiliensis · R. canescens · R. densiflora · R. dodecandra · R. glabrata · R. gracilis · R. herbacea · R. humilis (Bloodberry Geon Berry) · R. humilis L. 'Aurantiaca' · R. humilis L. 'Rubra' · R. humilis var. canescens · R. humilis var. glabra · R. humilis var. laevis · R. humilis var. plumbaginifolia · R. humilis var. puberula · R. humilis var. scandens · R. inaequalis · R. laevis · R. laevis f. brasiliensis · R. lanceolata · R. latifolia · R. moritziana · R. octandra · R. octandra var. obtusifolia · R. paniculata · R. paraguayensis · R. peruviana · R. polyandra · R. portulaccoides · R. procumbens · R. puberula · R. purpurascens · R. roseo-aenea · R. roseoaenea · R. scandens · R. secunda · R. tinctoria · R. viridiflora

More Info

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Further Reading

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• Adams, C. 1972. Flowering plants of Jamaica. (F Jam)
• Anales de la Sociedad Española de Historia Natural. Madrid: La Sociedad, ENG url p. 105.
• Annals of the Carnegie Museum. [Pittsburgh]: Published by authority of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institute, 1901- ENG url p. 115, p. 500.
• Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya. Colombo: Skien; 1901-1924. ENG url p. 549.
• Beitrge zur Kenntnis der Flora von Kolumbien und Westindien / von G. Schellenberg, Hans Schinz und Albert Thellung. Neuchatel: Impr. A. Frres, 1913. FRE url p. 363.
• Boggan, J. et al. 1997. Checklist of the plants of the Guianas, ed. 2. (L Guianas ed2)
• Bulletin, Gulf Biologic Station, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State Board of Agriculture and Immigration., 1902-1910. ENG url p. 18.
• Chloris platensis argentina / por Cristóbal M. Hicken. Buenos Aires: J.A. Alsina, 1910. SPA url p. 97.
• Contribution [I]-III to the coastal and plain flora of Yucatan, by Charles Frederick Millspaugh. Chicago, 1895-98. ENG url p. 16, p. xvi.
• Contribution la flore de la Guadeloupe. Basse-Terre, Impr. du Gouvernement, 1892. FRE url p. 10.
• Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden. New York: The Garden, 1899- ENG url p. 40.
• Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca. (F Zamb)
• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America. (F NAmer)
• FWS/0BS. [Washington]Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior. ENG url p. 112, p. 113.
• Fifty years of botany; golden jubilee volume of the Botanical Society of America, edited by William Campbell Steere. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1958. ENG url p. 323.
• Flora Costaricensis / William Burger, editor. Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, 1983. ENG url p. 209.
• Flora of Bermuda by Nathaniel Lord Britton New York, C. Scribner's sons, 1918. ENG url p. 581.
• Flora of Costa Rica by Paul C. Standley Chicago, 1937. ENG url p. 427.
• Flora of Guatemala, by Paul C. Standley and J.A. Steyermark. Chicago, 1946- ENG url p. 200.
• Flora of Miami; being descriptions of the seed-plants growing naturally on the Everglade Keys and in the adjacent Everglades, southern peninsular Florida. New York, The author, 1913. ENG url p. 70.
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• Flora of the Lancetilla Valley, Honduras, by Paul C. Standley. Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History, 1931. ENG url p. 189, p. 36.
• Flora of the southern United States: containing an abridged description of the flowering plants and ferns of Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida: arranged according to the natural system. The ferns by Prof. Dani New York, Ivison, Blakeman, 1889 [c1883] ENG url p. 375.
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• Henderson, L. 2001. Alien weeds and invasive plants: a complete guide to declared weeds and invaders in South Africa. Plant Protection Research Institute, Handbook 12. (Weeds SAfr 2001)
• Herrn Bengt And. Euphrasns Reise nach der schwedisch-westindischen Insel St. Barthelemi und den inseln St. Estache und St. Christoph, oder, Beschreibung der Sitten, Lebensart der Einwohner, Lage, Besc aus dem Schwedischen von Joh. Georg Lud. Blumhof. Gttingen: Bey Johann Christian Dieterich, 1798. GER url p. 156.
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Notes

Contributors

• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed November 22, 2007. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 21 providers.
• "Rivina humilis". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 10. Published by Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.
• USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. URL (April 30, 2008)

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 22, 2007:

• Australian National Herbarium
• , Australian National Herbarium
• Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Bishop Museum Natural History Specimen Data
• Comisión nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad, Herbario del Instituto de Ecología, A.C., México
• Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden Virtual Herbarium Darwin Core format
• Herbarium of the University of Aarhus, The AAU Herbarium Database
• Herbier de la Guyane, Herbier de la Guyane
• Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad
• , Biodiversidad de Costa Rica
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
• National Herbarium of New South Wales, NSW herbarium collection
• School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Arizona State University Vascular Plant Herbarium
• SysTax, Herbarium Universitat Ulm
• SysTax, SysTax
• USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2646043
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-19534
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13771621
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:676446-1
• GRIN Nomen Number: 31908
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 19534
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 164112-3
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: RIHU2
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 59601

Footnotes

1. Dequan Lu & Kai Larsen "Phytolaccaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 435. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. "Rivina". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 3, 4, 9. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
3. "Rivina humilis". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 10. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

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