''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, they were 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, twin ...

within 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 Members of the ...

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

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

s off the coast of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

. The species

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

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 (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") 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 themselv ...

with cylindrical, twining, fleshy, glabrous

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

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