Adelia |
Adelia vaseyi |
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wild lime |
Vasey's wild lime |
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Habit | Shrubs [trees], unarmed or branchlets sometimes stiff and thorn-tipped, dioecious [monoecious], hairs unbranched; latex absent. | Shrubs, 1–2(–3) m; bark gray to brown, branches usually ascending. |
Leaves | deciduous, fascicled on short shoots [alternate], simple; stipules present, deciduous; petiole present, glands absent; blade unlobed, margins entire [crenate], laminar glands absent; venation palmate at base and pinnate distally [pinnate]. |
petiole 0.2 cm; blade pale green, spatulate to obovate, 2–3(–4) × 0.5–1 cm, base cuneate, apex usually rounded, rarely emarginate, surfaces glabrous; 3-veined at base, secondary veins 4–7 pairs. |
Inflorescences | unisexual [bisexual], axillary, fascicles [racemes] or flowers solitary; bracts subtending pistillate flowers minute, not enlarging in fruit; glands subtending each bract 0. |
1–3-flowered. |
Pedicels | present. |
staminate 2 mm, pistillate 3–5 mm in flower to 20 mm in fruit. |
Staminate flowers | sepals [4–]5, not petaloid, 2[–5] mm, valvate, distinct; petals 0; nectary extrastaminal, annular [5 glands], adnate to calyx; stamens [6–-]14–17[–30], connate basally [distinct]; pistillode present [absent]. |
greenish white; sepals lanceolate, acute, 2 mm, hairy; stamens whitish; filaments 1.5 mm; pistillode 3-parted. |
Pistillate flowers | sepals 5(–6)[–7], distinct; petals 0; nectary annular; pistil (2–)3(–4)–carpellate; styles (2–)3(–4), distinct [connate basally], deeply multifid. |
yellowish green; sepals reflexed at anthesis, ovate to lanceolate, acute, 2–-3 mm, puberulent; ovary 1.5–2.5 mm diam.; styles 2 mm. |
Fruits | capsules. |
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Capsules | subglobose, 1–-1.3 cm diam., hairy. |
|
Seeds | subglobose; caruncle absent. |
4–-5 mm. |
Adelia |
Adelia vaseyi |
|
Phenology | Flowering Jan–Jun, fruiting Jun. | |
Habitat | Subtropical semideciduous woodlands on loamy soils, occasionally shrublands on sandy to gravelly soils. | |
Elevation | 10–100 m. (0–300 ft.) | |
Distribution |
TX; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; tropical and subtropical regions |
TX; Subtropical semideciduous woodlands on loamy soils; occasionally shrublands on sandy to gravelly soils; Mexico (Tamaulipas) |
Discussion | Species 9 (1 in the flora). Phylogenetic analyses of morphological and molecular data support Adelia as a monophyletic group sister to the Caribbean genera Lasiocroton Grisebach and Leucocroton Grisebach (De-Nova and V. Sosa 2007). Three principal lineages were recognized in Adelia: the first includes only A. cinerea (Wiggins & Rollins) A. Cervantes, V. W. Steinmann & Flores Olvera, a species endemic to Mexico; the second includes four Mexican species (including A. vaseyi); and the third comprises the remaining four species from the West Indies, Central America, and South America. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
In the flora area, Adelia vaseyi is restricted to the lower Rio Grande Valley (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy counties), where much of its habitat has been destroyed. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 181. | FNA vol. 12, p. 181. |
Parent taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Euphorbia vaseyi | |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 2: 1285, 1298. (1759) — name conserved | (J. M. Coulter) Pax & K. Hoffmann: in H. G. A. Engler, Pflanzenr. 63[IV,147]: 69. (1914) |
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