Blepharodon mucronatum (Schltdl.) Decne.

(Asclepiadaceae)

Espinoza, R., Masís, A., Chavarria, F., Guadamuz, A. and Perez, D. 1998. Blepharodon mucronatum (Asclepiadaceae) Species Page, May 11, 1998. Species Home Pages, Area de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica. http://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr

I. Identification:

Climbing herbaceous vine.

Flower:

Greenish-white flowers. Five petals with pubescent margins. Perfect flowers (both sexes on the same flower)

The inflorescences are axillary cymes. The flowers open in the morning and remain open for a number of days. It has no fragance.

 

View of the inflorescence

Fruit:

The fruit is a dehiscent capsule with 98-100 seeds per fruit which are wind dispersed thanks to thier numerous long, fine, white hairs.

 

Mature entire

Immature fruit

Mature open fruit. True bugs (Hemiptera) inside the fruit.

 

Old fruit

Leaves:

Simple and opposite. Lanceolate in form, entire margin. Approximately 3-7 cm long. Upper surface of the leaf is dark green, under side is light green.

Cilindrical petiole approximately 0.7 cm long. They have interpetiolar glands (Croat 1978). When a stem or leaf is broken they secrete a white sticky latex. It is evergreen.

 

Leaf arrangement

Bark and wood:

Whole plant architecture:

View of the plant in its natural habitat

Similar species:

It can be mistaken with Mesechites trifida (Apocynaceae) but the secondary vaination is very irregular in contrast to that of Blepharodon mucrunatum, which is paralell.

Verification:

II.Geographic distribution:

International:

Mexico to South America (Croat 1978).

In Costa Rica:

In the Area de Conservación Guanacaste:

In regenerating pastures in semideciduous and deciduous forests.

 Map of macro-habitats of the ACG

III. Natural History:

IV. How to find:

In the El Hacha sector, in the Santa Rosa and Murciélago sectors.

Acknowledgements.

This project was carried out by the Area de Conservación Guanacaste/CR, with help from INBio/CR, ICBG from the Foggarty center, NIH/USA and NSF/USA.

Thanks to Kate Beattie for helping with the image management and the translation of this species page.

Literature cited:

Croat, T.B. 1978. Flora of Barro Colorado Island. Standford University Press, Standford, pag 716.