Matelea biflora
Matelea parviflora
star milkvine, two flower matelea, two-flower milkvine
smallflower milkvine
4–10, decumbent, often branched near base, 7–40 cm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes.
5–20, prostrate, often branched near base, 10–40 cm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute 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 1 or 2 colleters on each side of petiole;
petiole 0.2–0.9 cm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes;
blade ovate to deltate (lanceolate or orbiculate), 0.5–4 × 0.3–3 cm, base rounded or truncate to cordate, with 0–4 laminar colleters, apex acute to acuminate, surfaces hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes, especially so on veins abaxially.
solitary, umbelliform, extra-axillary, sessile or subsessile, 1–2-flowered.
solitary, compound racemiform, extra-axillary, pedunculate, 2–20-flowered;
peduncle 0.7–10 cm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes.
3–11 mm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes.
1–10 mm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute 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 erect, elliptic, 1.5–2.5 mm, apex acute, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes;
corolla green to purple, faintly to strongly reticulate, rotate, lobes spreading to reflexed, planar, ovate, lanceolate, or oblong, 1–4 mm, hirtellous adaxially at base of lobes or rarely throughout;
corona united to corolla and staminal column near base, composed of 2 series, the outer of 5 laminar segments shorter than the style apex, apical margins with minute to elongate lateral lobes, the inner of 5 erect, subulate segments exceeding the style apex, white or greenish cream, 0.8–3 mm, glabrous;
style apex rounded-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.
tan to light brown, broadly ovate to nearly orbicular, 10–16 × 9–15 mm, margins broadly winged, chalazal end minutely erose, faces minutely rugose;
coma 2–4 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, ovoid to ellipsoid, 6–10.5 × 1.5–3 cm, apex acuminate, moderately to densely muricate, hirsute.
Matelea biflora
Matelea parviflora
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 parviflora is uncommon to occasional in the South Texas plains. The species consists of several geographic variants differing in aspects of corolla and corona morphology. The most common form has green reticulate corollas with strongly reflexed lobes that are hirtellous adaxially only at the base and coronas composed of outer segments with elongate lateral lobes at the apex and very long, erect inner segments—together forming a trident. Less common variants have olive or purple corollas, corolla lobes that are spreading and/or densely hirtellous across the adaxial surface, minutely lobed outer corona segments, or short inner corona segments. This circumscription includes specimens that have been commonly identified as M. brevicoronata, although they differ conspicuously in one or more attributes of the type. For distinctions with the very similar M. brevicoronata, see discussion under that species. An illegitimate combination in Gonolobus was made by A. Gray at a time when the species was treated under a broad concept of that genus.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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