Matelea biflora
Matelea parvifolia
star milkvine, two flower matelea, two-flower milkvine
spearleaf, talayote
4–10, decumbent, often branched near base, 7–40 cm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes.
1–10, twining, 10–150 cm, retrorse-puberulent with straight or curved, eglandular 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 0–2 colleters on each side of petiole;
petiole 0.2–1 cm, sparsely puberulent with curved, eglandular trichomes and inconspicuously glandular-hirtellous;
blade ovate to lanceolate or deltate, 0.5–2 × 0.2–1 cm, base truncate to deeply cordate, with 2–4 laminar colleters, apex acute, surfaces hirtellous with eglandular and inconspicuous glandular trichomes.
solitary, umbelliform, extra-axillary, sessile or subsessile, 1–2-flowered.
solitary, umbelliform, extra-axillary, sessile, 1–3-flowered.
3–11 mm, hirsute with long eglandular and minute glandular trichomes.
1–5 mm, hirtellous 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, deltate to elliptic, 1.9–3 mm, apex acute, hirtellous with eglandular and inconspicuous glandular trichomes;
corolla brown or maroon to green, not reticulate, campanulate, tube 0.5–1 mm, lobes erect (spreading), deltate, 2–3 mm, abaxially hirtellous, adaxially hirtellous at base of each lobe to glabrate;
corona of 5 united lobes, cup-shaped and undulate-spreading with 5 ridges opposite anthers, exceeded by style apex, maroon or brown to green (yellow), 0.5–0.7 mm, glabrous;
apical anther appendages white, deltoid;
style apex yellowish green to maroon, pentagonal, head flat to broadly convex.
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, ovate, 5–7 × 3–5 mm, margins winged, chalazal end minutely erose, faces rugulose;
coma 1.5–2 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.
gray to maroon or purplish striate, narrowly lance-ovoid, 5–9 × 0.5–1.5 cm, apex acuminate, nearly smooth to sparsely tuberculate, mostly on lower half, minutely short-hirsute, glabrate.
, suffrutesent, not corky.
Matelea biflora
Matelea parvifolia
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 parvifolia is a vigorously twining, drought-deciduous vine found disjunctly in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. To the east, it is restricted to the Big Bend region of Texas and adjacent Coahuila, Mexico. The few collections and observations made in Texas suggest that conservation status in that state merits consideration. The range is much larger in the west, extending from the lower Grand Canyon across the southwestern half of Arizona to adjacent Sonora, Mexico, and southeastern California; these two regions are disjunct by more than 500 km. The absence of M. parvifolia from New Mexico (and Chihuahua, Mexico) is curious, and the species may be sought in the Peloncillo Mountains, as it has been documented just across the border in Sonora. Similarly, discovery in Nevada would not be surprising. As far as known, all reports from Baja California pertain to M. hastulata (A. Gray) Sundell.
The closely related Matelea sagittifolia in southern Texas is nearly identical to M. parvifolia in vegetative characteristics but differs by consistently green corollas with oblong-spatulate lobes (versus shades of brown or maroon and deltate lobes), and a white, lobed style apex (versus green to maroon and pentagonal).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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