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Lianas, the branchlets hexagonal usually with raised angles, without interpetiolar glandular fields, sometimes with foliaceous pseudostipules. Leaves 2-foliolate, frequently with a trifid tendril. Inflorescence a raceme or a racemose panicle, mostly terminal, few- to several-flowered. Calyx cupular, ± truncate, usually with glandular fields below margin; corolla white to dark red-violet or red, tubular-campanulate or narrowly tubular, pubescent outside. Anthers glabrous, the thecae straight, divaricate to subparallel. Ovary oblong, puberulous; ovules few-seriate in each locule; disk annular-pulviniform. Fruit a capsule, the valves convex or biconvex, elliptic-oblong, acutish at extremes, the valves not echinate. Seeds thin, 2-winged, the body brown, usually ± papillose or puberulous.
Mexico, Central America, Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil; 10 species, 3 in Venezuela, 2 of these in the flora area.
1. Leaves stellate-pubescent, not canescent; corolla lavender ..... D. granulosa
1. Leaves pubescent with simple trichomes, ± canescent below; corolla dark purple when fresh ..... D. pulverulenta
Distictis granulosa Bureau & K. Schum. in Mart., Fl. Bras. 8(2): 179. 1896.
Pithecoctenium uleanum Kraenzl., Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 6: 377. 1915.
Liana. Moist and wet nonflooded evergreen lowland forests, 100-1000(-1200) m; Bolívar (Altiplanicie de Nuria, Gran Sabana, Río Cuyuní basin), Amazonas (scattered). Apure; Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Peru, Amazonian Brazil, Bolivia. Fig. 380.
Distictis pulverulenta (Sandwith) A.H. Gentry, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 63: 77. 1976. -Distictella pulverulenta Sandwith, Brittonia 3: 91. 1938.
Canopy liana. Poor-soil, sandy forests, 200-800 m; Bolívar (Gran Sabana), western Amazonas. Guyana, French Guiana, Amazonian Peru, Brazil.
This species has the branchlet angles rather inconspicuous and is thus ± intermediate between Distictis and Distictella. However, both genera are distinctive in their dark wine-colored flowers.