''Cynanchum staubii'' (endemic common name: ''liane calle'') is a rare coastal plant from the subfamily

Asclepiadoideae The Asclepiadoideae are a subfamily of plants in the family Apocynaceae. Formerly, it was treated as a separate family under the name Asclepiadaceae, e.g. by APG II, and known as the milkweed family. They form a group of perennial herbs, twinin ...

in the family

Apocynaceae Apocynaceae (, from '' Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison. Notable mem ...

. It is endemic to the Îlot Fourneau and the Ile aux Aigrettes, two

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

s off the coast of

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

. The species

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

commemorates Dr.

France Staub France Staub (September 29, 1920 – July 2, 2005) was a Mauritian ornithologist, herpetologist, botanist, and conservationist. Biography Staub was a descendant of French botanist Jacques Delisse (1773−1856). He obtained the diploma at the Ma ...

, an ornithologist, herpetologist, botanist, and conservationist from Mauritius who collected the holotype in 1965. ''Cynanchum staubii'' is a leafless

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

with cylindrical, twining, fleshy, glabrous

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

s which are 0.6 to 1.8 cm in diameter. They can climb up to 2 m high. The inflorescences which can bear 5 to 10 flowers inserted terminally at the nodes of the branches. They are arranged solitary or in fascicles. The finely pubescent pedicels are 4–6 mm long. The ovoid buds are rounded at the top. The calyx prefloration is quincuncial. The ovate sepals which are rounded at the tip are 1.2 to 1.5. mm long and finely pubescent on the back. The corolla is urceolate when young but becomes more or less campanulate with advancing age. The five petals are 3.5 to 4.5 mm long and fused at the base. They are narrowly ovate-obtuse, fleshy, and slightly recurved at the apex. The simple, membranous, cylindrical, erect corona is 2.8 to 3 mm high. It exceeds the gynostegium and has 5 erect lobes which are narrowly triangular-acute. The gynostegium which is conical at the top is 1.2 to 1.3 mm long. The light green, linear, glabrous follicles are 10 to 13 cm long. The seeds are brown, narrowly ovate-flattened, 6–7 mm long, 2–3 mm wide and margined.

References

*Bosser, Jean (2005): Flore des Mascareignes: 121, Apocynacées à 126, Boraginacées, Coll., Botanical Garden of Kew (U.K.) & MNH, p 22

External links

Illustration of ''Cynanchum staubii''
staubii Endemic flora of Mauritius {{Apocynaceae-stub