Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana << Back BIGNONIACEAE 20. MARTINELLA Baill., Hist. Pl. 10: 30. 1888. Lianas, the branchlets terete, without interpetiolar glandular fields or pseudostipules. Leaves 2-foliolate, sometimes with a trifid (rarely simple) tendril. Inflorescence an axillary raceme. Calyx tubular-campanulate, bilabiate, or irregularly 3- or 4-labiate; corolla magenta to wine-colored, tubular-campanulate above a narrowly tubular base, glabrous to inconspicuously lepidote outside. Anthers glabrous, the thecae straight, divaricate. Ovary linear-cylindric, sparsely lepidote or puberulous; ovules (2-)4-seriate in each locule. Fruit a linear capsule, strongly flattened, the valves parallel to septum, thin, smooth, the midline inconspicuous. Seeds thin, 2-winged, the wings membranous, brownish, poorly demarcated from seed body. Southern Mexico to Brazil and Bolivia; 2 species, both in the flora area. Key to the Species of Martinella 1. Leaflets strongly coriaceous, the venation plane or impressed on lower surface, large and elliptic, usually with ± cuneate base ..... M. iquitosensis 1. Leaflets chartaceous to thin-coriaceous, the venation often prominulous below, variable in shape but usually obovate with a truncate or subcordate base unless small (less than 1 cm long) ..... M. obovata Martinella iquitosensis A. Samp., Ann. Acad. Brasil. Sci. 7: 122. 1935. Martinella manaosiana A. Samp., Bol. Mus. Nac. Rio de Janeiro 12(3): 84. 1936. Slender vine. White-sand areas, especially around the edges of savannas, 100-200 m; Amazonas (Río Mawarinuma). Amazonian Peru and Brazil. Fig. 390. This species is not well differentiated from Martinella obovata, but there definitely seem to be two distinct taxa with consistently different leaves in white-sand areas of upper Amazonia. Martinella obovata (H.B.K.) Bureau & K. Schum. in Mart., Fl. Bras. 8(2): 161, pl. 84. 1896. -Spathodea obovata H.B.K., Nov. Gen. Sp. (quarto ed.) 3: 147. 1818 [1819]. Liana or slender vine. Moist or wet nonflooded evergreen lowland forests, fringes of white-sand savannas, 50-200(-700) m; common and widespread in the flora area, especially Amazonas. Anzoátegui, Mérida, Miranda, Sucre, Zulia; Belize to Panama, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Amazonian Brazil and Bolivia. Fig. 389. Martinella insculpta Sprague & Sandwith of adjacent Guyana is intermediate between this species and M. iquitosensis. TOP Scientific Comments: Paul Berry (peberry@facstaff.wisc.edu) or Kay Yatskievych (kay.yatskievych@mobot.org).