Adelia barbinervis
Adelia barbinervis is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae that is native to southern Mexico and northern Central America. The Huastec Maya cultivated the plant as a famine food.
Description
Adelia barbinervis is a shrub, or as a tree that grows to be 2–9 meters tall. The bark is spinescent, thin, and gray to whitish.The leaves grow with an alternate pattern. The upper side is dark green and hairless while the underside is paler and pubescent along the veins. Rarely, the underside of the leaf is tomentose, i.e. densely covered in short, matted hairs. The leaves have 5–7 lateral veins. The axils of the veins have tufts of hair called domatia. The leaves are lanceolate with a length of 4–9cm and a width of 2–3.5cm. The margins are entire. The leaves are connected to their twig by a 2–5mm petiole, which is pubescent. The inconspicuous stipules at the base of the petiole are pubescent and, like the leaves, lanceolate.
Plants flower from November to January. The species is dioecious: male and female flowers are not found on the same plant. Flowers grow from the axils of the leaves. The male flowers grow in cymose fascicles of 10–30 flowers. The male pedicels are pubescent and just 3.5–7mm long. Male flowers have 3–5 greenish or whitish ovate sepals, which are about 2mm long and pubescent on both sides. Male flowers have 8–12 whitish stamens, each with 2-mm filaments and globose anthers, that are joined at the base. The female flowers have longer pedicels, 15–30mm long. Female flowers have 5–7 green, linear-lanceolate sepals 2–3mm long, the upper surfaces of which are puberulent. The ovary is tomentose. The three yellow or white 1.5–2mm styles are flat and widened, joined at the base, and have lacerate edges at the apex.
The species produces fruit from January to April. The fruit is a green, pubescent, three-lobed capsule 1.1mm in diameter that dehisces when dry. The smooth, pale seeds inside are 3.5–4.5mm long and subglobose.
Taxonomy
Adelia barbinervis was first described by Cham. & Schltdl. and was published in Linnaea 6: 362 in 1831. Ricinella barbinervis Müll.Arg., published in Linnaea 34: 154, is a homotypic synonym of Adelia barbinervis.The specific epithet barbinervis means "bearded veins" and refers to the leaves’ domatia.
Adelia barbinervis is closely related to A. triloba.