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Family: Urticaceae
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Dioecious liana or vine, sometimes pendent from trees (elsewhere in Panama sometimes a small tree); young stems densely hirsute, glabrous in age. Leaves alternate; petioles 1-7 cm long, sparsely pilose; stipules acute, 1.5-2 mm long, caducous; blades ovate-oblong to obovate-oblong (rarely ovate elsewhere), acuminate, obtuse to subcordate at base, 9-17 cm long, 3.5-7.5 cm wide, short-hirsute on veins below or glabrate, entire to obscurely sinuate or crenate-dentate, the linear cystoliths of the upper surface mostly radiating from scattered, pellucid-punctations, those of the lower surface aligned mostly parallel to secondary and tertiary veins. Inflorescences dichotomously branched cymes, l-5 cm long, about as long as wide; peduncles to 2 cm long, usually less than 1 cm long; peduncles and branches of inflorescence puberulent. Flowers unisexual, minute, white or greenish, inconspicuous; staminate flowers 4- or 5-parted, sessile, in glomerules; pistillate flowers 4-parted, usually solitary, short-pedicellate, the style very short, the stigma + capitate, densely pubescent. Achenes +/- globular, to ca 3 mm diam, orange, partially covered by fleshy, enlarged perianth. Croat 12179. Uncommon, in the forest. Flowers in the late dry and early rainy seasons, from April to September, especially in July and August. The fruits mature mostly from September to December, but sometimes in the early dry season. Possibly several species are involved. In the Flora of Panama (Killip,1960), this species was treated as U. elata Griseb., which is endemic to the West Indies. Urera eggersiiis extremely variable throughout its range; it is described as being a shrub or tree in other regions. The description here reflects mostly material collected on BCI. Plants from BCI differ from the type specimen from Ecuador in drying darker, in having much less pubescence, and in having conspicuous cystoliths. It is possible that the BCI plants represent a new species, but the problem warrants much more field work before a decision can be made. Urera boliviensis Herz. and U. killipii Standl. & Steyerm. may also be synonymous with U. eggersii. Costa Rica to Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, San Blas, Panama, and Darien, from premontane wet forest in Chiriqui, Veraguas, and Coclé, and from tropical wet forest in Colón, Los Santos, and Darien. |