Desmoncus polyacanthos Mart.

General Description

Subcanopy reaching liana. Stems solitary or clustered, to 10 m long, 1-2 cm in diameter. Leaves 1-2 m long; rachis with numerous short, recurved spines; pinnae 8-13 on each side, more or less evenly spaced, ovate-elliptic, 15-35 cm long and 3-6 cm wide; the distal half of the rachis with 4-7 pairs of pinnae transformed into climbing hooks, each hook 3-7 cm long. Inflorescence 70-80 cm long, with ca. 15, short branches. Fruit red, obovate, flat at apex, 15-20 mm long. Plants 7.2(1.0-37.0) m tall; stems 1.4(0.5-2.9) cm diameter, clustered. Leaf petioles 3.2(0.5-13.5) cm long; rachises 63.8(25.0-173.0) cm long, 5.2(1.8-12.9) mm wide, the spines usually <1 cm long, mostly abaxial, recurved with markedly swollen bases; pinnae 8(4-15) per side of rachis, without long, filiform apices, without a beard of spines at the bases, without spinules or dense tomentum at the bases adaxially; basal pinna 15.8(3.3-40.0) cm long, 2.7(0.3-5.8) cm wide; cirri well-developed, with acanthophylls, cirri with spines abaxially mostly on proximal part only, without intermediate acanthophylls present, with a wide gap between pinnae and acanthophylls. Inflorescences with the rachis thicker than the few, closely spaced and spirally arranged rachillae, each rachilla subtended by an acute bracteole and with an axillary pulvinus; peduncles 3.5(1.6-12.4) mm wide; peduncular bracts 26.3(16.5-34.0) cm long, broad, sparsely to densely covered with short, markedly swollen-based, diagonally oriented spines, these triangular in cross-section, whitish-brown proximally, brown distally, with tomentose margins, rarely spines few or absent; rachillae 15(5-37), glabrous or scarcely tomentose initially; proximal rachillae 7.4(3.3-13.0) cm long, 1.1(0.6-2.0) mm wide; stamens 5 6; fruits 16.4(11.2-23.5) mm long, 11.9(7.9-17.9) mm wide, the surfaces smooth, without any apparen subepidermal fibers; fruiting corollas less than one quarter as long as fruits, splitting irregularly into 3 lobes the lobes often splitting again; endocarps globose to obovoid with rounded apices, the pores lateral, not equidistant, the sterile pores closer latitudinally

Distribution

Widespread in W South America, from Venezuela to Bolivia, at low elevations. From 10°37'N-21°31'S and 35°09'-78°38'W in Trinidad, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil (including the Atlantic Coastal Forest), Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia at 205(0-1000) m elevation in a variety of habitats including lowland rainforest on terra firme, flooded forest, campina, restinga, or scrub forest near the sea. Read (1979) also included the Lesser Antillean island of St. Vincent in the distribution of this species, but only one, sterile specimen from there has been seen. There is another specimen at P labelled Martinique but without more precise locality.

Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Distribution

Nativa en Colombia; Alt. 80 - 300 m.; Amazonia, Guayana y Serranía de La Macarena, Orinoquia.

Morphology General Habit

Trepadora

Conservation

Preocupación Menor

Distribution

Biogeografic region: Amazonia, Guiana Shield, Orinoquia. Elevation range: 80–300 m a.s.l. Native to Colombia. Colombian departments: Amazonas, Arauca, Guainía, Meta, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, Vichada.

Habit

Climbing.

Conservation

National Red List of Colombia (2021): LC.

Ecology

Habitat according IUCN Habitats Classification: forest and woodland, savanna, shrubland, native grassland, wetlands (inland), artificial - terrestrial.

Vernacular

Namemo (Cubeo)

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident