Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana << Back BIGNONIACEAE 32. SCHLEGELIA Miq., Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 2: 785. 1844. Lianas, usually hemiepiphytic, the branchlets ± terete, without interpetiolar glandular fields; pseudostipules small, blunt-conical or subulate, ± appressed against the branchlet. Leaves simple, opposite, often strikingly coriaceous, without tendrils. Inflorescence an axillary raceme or a terminal or axillary panicle, often conspicuously bracteate, sometimes ramiflorous or cauliflorous. Calyx cupular, truncate or irregularly lobed; corolla white to pink, purple, yellow, or red, tubular-campanulate to narrowly tubular, often short, ± glabrous outside, conspicuously glandular-lepidote on lobes inside. Anthers glabrous, the thecae relatively short and thick, divaricate. Ovary globose, bilocular with a single central placenta in each locule, sometimes apically unilocular; ovules multiseriate on each placenta, or in apically unilocular ovaries parietal on 2 bifid placentae fused lower in ovary. Fruit usually a spherical berry with a thin crustaceous pericarp, the lower part sheathed by the persistent calyx, larger and ± ellipsoid and hard-shelled in some species. Seeds small, angular, wingless, surrounded by pulp. Mexico, Central America, Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil; 16 species, 5 in Venezuela, 3 of these in the flora area. Key to the Species of Schlegelia 1. Corolla narrowly tubular, the tube > 2 cm long, with tiny (ca. 1 mm long) lobes, red-orange to purplish red; inflorescence cauliflorous...S. spruceana 1. Corolla short-tubular, the tube less than 2 cm long, with larger lobes (3-6 mm long), white to lavender or magenta, never orangish or bright red; inflorescence terminal or axillary...2 2(1). Calyx subtruncate, 4-5 mm long; corolla tube ca. 2 mm wide; fruit 1-1.6 cm diameter, the lower 1/3-1/4 covered by the persistent, subtruncate calyx...S. scandens 2. Calyx irregularly 2-5-lobed, 5-9 mm long; corolla tube ca. 3 mm wide; fruit less than 1 cm diameter, the lower 2/3 covered by the persistent, distinctly toothed calyx...S. violacea Schlegelia scandens (Briq. & Spruce) Sandwith, Bull. Misc. Inform. 1930: 214. 1930. -Citharexylum scandens Briq. & Spruce, Bull. Herb. Boissier 4: 341. 1896. Hemiepiphytic liana. Mature evergreen lowland forests on poor sandy soils, 100-700 m; Amazonas (Cocuy, middle Río Orinoco, Río Yatúa, Sierra de la Neblina, Yavita). Suriname, Peru, Brazil (Amazonas). Fig. 410. Schlegelia spruceana K. Schum. in Mart., Fl. Bras. 8(2): 400. 1897. Hemiepiphytic liana. Evergreen lowland to montane forests, mostly on poor sandy soils, tepui slopes, 100-1400 m; eastern Bolívar, central to southern Amazonas. Adjacent Guyana and Brazil. Fig. 412. Schlegelia violacea (Aubl.) Griseb., Fl. Brit. W. I. 445. 1861, excluding description. -Besleria violacea Aubl., Hist. Pl. Guiane 630, t. 254. 1775. Hemiepiphytic liana. Evergreen lowland to lower montane forests, 50-800 m; Delta Amacuro (scattered), Bolívar (Río Cuyuní basin, Serranía de Imataca), Amazonas (Solano). Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil (Amazonas). Fig. 411. Scientific Comments: Paul Berry (peberry@facstaff.wisc.edu) or Kay Yatskievych (kay.yatskievych@mobot.org).