Matelea biflora
Matelea decipiens
star milkvine, two flower matelea, two-flower milkvine
climbing milkweed, Oldfield milkvine
4–10, decumbent, often branched near base, 7–40 cm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes.
1(–5), twining, 50–200 cm, hirsute with eglandular and inconspicuous glandular trichomes.
1 or 2 colleters on each side of petiole;
petiole 0.5–2.5 cm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes;
blade ovate to deltate, 0.8–5 × 0.6–3.2 cm, base shallowly to deeply cordate, with 0–2 laminar colleters, apex acute (rounded), surfaces hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes, especially so on veins abaxially.
with 2 colleters on each side of petiole;
petiole 1.5–9.5 cm, hirsute with eglandular and inconspicuous glandular trichomes;
blade ovate to oval to orbiculate, 4–14 × 2.5–16 cm, base shallowly to deeply cordate, with 2 laminar colleters, apex acute to acuminate, surfaces hirsute with eglandular and inconspicuous glandular trichomes.
solitary, umbelliform, extra-axillary, sessile or subsessile, 1–2-flowered.
solitary or paired, simple or compound umbelliform, extra-axillary, pedunculate, 10–40-flowered;
peduncle 1–9 cm, hirsute with eglandular and inconspicuous glandular trichomes.
3–11 mm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes.
10–25 mm, hirsute with eglandular and inconspicuous glandular trichomes.
calyx lobes spreading, oval to ovate, 1.8–2.5 mm, apex rounded or acute, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes;
corolla maroon to dark brown, not reticulate, rotate-campanulate, tube 1–1.5 mm, lobes spreading, ovate to narrowly deltate to spatulate, 3–6 mm, margins usually reflexed, pilose to hirsute adaxially;
corona united to corolla and column near base, composed of 5 united segments forming a ring at base, each with an adaxial incurved appendage arching above or incumbent on anthers, equaling or exceeding style apex, maroon to dark brown, 1–1.5 mm, glabrous;
apical anther appendages white, maroon to brown at base, broadly deltoid;
style apex rounded, flat.
calyx lobes spreading, elliptic to lanceolate, 2–3.8 mm, apex acute to acuminate, hirsute with eglandular and inconspicuous glandular trichomes;
corolla pale maroon to green tinged with maroon abaxially, purple to maroon (greenish yellow or green tinged) adaxially, not reticulate, shallowly campanulate, tube 1.5–2.5 mm, lobes erect to spreading, slightly twisted, oblong, 7–18 mm, margins plane (recurved), glabrous abaxially, minutely hirtellous at base to glabrate adaxially;
corona united to column near base, usually pentagonal, of 5 united, laminar segments, each with 2 lateral lobes at apex equaling or exceeding medial lobe, forming a ring exceeded by style apex, adaxial appendages incurved, incumbent on anthers, sometimes concealed by erect corolla lobes, maroon, 0.8–2 mm, 3–4 mm diam., glabrous;
apical anther appendages bright white with pink to maroon patch at base, rhomboid;
style apex yellow-green to maroon, pentagonal, flat.
tan to light brown, oval to nearly orbicular or ovate, 8–11 × 7–10 mm, margins broadly winged, chalazal end erose, faces minutely rugose;
coma 2.5–4 cm.
brown, ovate, 7–8 × 5–6 mm, margins broadly winged, chalazal end entire, faces rugose;
coma 3–4.2 cm.
not striate, ellipsoid to ovoid, 4.5–8.5 × 1.8–3.5 cm, apex acute, densely muricate (more than 1 protrusion per cm of length), villous to hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes.
not striate, lance-ovoid, 8–12 × 1–2 cm, apex acuminate, moderately muricate, minutely hirsute.
, herbaceous.
Matelea biflora
Matelea decipiens
Matelea biflora is occasionally found in grasslands and savannas of the southern Great Plains. It is most common on and around the Edwards Plateau of central Texas, where it occurs in grass-dominated habitats including disturbed areas. The range extends mostly northward and westward of that region to central Oklahoma and extreme eastern New Mexico (Lea County), where the species is much less common. Its conservation status in New Mexico merits evaluation. The plants are covered in short, glandular hairs and are malodorous when touched. The flowers occur most often in pairs, hence the common name two-flowered milkvine.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Matelea decipiens is distributed entirely west of the Mississippi River as far as presently known. Its range extends across the Ozark Mountains to the Gulf Coastal Plain in Louisiana and eastern Texas. However, it is largely absent from the western Ozarks in southwestern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas and from the Ouachita Mountains, where it is replaced by M. baldwyniana. Matelea decipiens reappears at scattered locations west of the Ozark uplift in Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas in Neosho County. It is considered to be of conservation concern in Kansas, and its status in Oklahoma and Texas merits evaluation. There are no known sites where M. decipiens and M. baldwyniana co-occur. The flowers of M. decipiens become smaller as the range of M. hirtelliflora is approached in Texas, and they barely overlap with that species (corolla lobes 7–18 mm in M. decipiens versus 3.2–7.5 mm in M. hirtelliflora). The corollas of M. decipiens are never hirtellous adaxially, as they very often are in M. hirtelliflora. E. J. Alexander (1933) and all subsequent authors considered some populations of spinypods in the Appalachian region to belong to this species, based on large, maroon corollas with ascending lobes. Appalachian populations are considered to belong to 15. M. carolinensis, as discussed under that species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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