Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana << Back BIGNONIACEAE 13. DISTICTIS Mart. ex Meisn., Pl. Vasc. Gen. 1: 300; 2: 208. 1840. 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. Key to the Species of Distictis 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. TOP Scientific Comments: Paul Berry (peberry@facstaff.wisc.edu) or Kay Yatskievych (kay.yatskievych@mobot.org).