17. Mourera Aublet
Mourera Aublet, Hist. Pl. Guiane 582 (1775).
Roots 0 in M. fluviatilis Aublet, thread-like in M. aspera (Bongard) Tulasne and M. schwackeana Warming, insufficiently documented in other species; stems creeping, simple, 1--20 cm long, 0.5--5 cm thick, merging with leaf bases; holdfasts developing from leaf bases, polymorphic, claw-shaped to tendril-like, up to 4 cm long. Leaves in basal rosettes, very variable, 8--100 (--200) cm long, elliptical or pinnately lobed with marginal fimbriae, or repeatedly forked into capillary segments, ultimate segments inrolled when young, with hairs along concave sector; upper surface in M. fluviatilis very coarse and provided with warts and rigid, conical, vascularised prickles, in 2 other species with warts only; lower surface in all species glabrous, sometimes with prominent palmate to net-like veins; leaf bases cuneate, merging with the holdfast; sheaths simple or double. Spathellas tubular, 10--15 mm long, splitting irregularly. Flowers alternating with bracts in a stalked, 2-sided, simple or forked, raceme-like inflorescence, with up to 90 flowers, or rarely reduced to 1 or 2 flowers, anthesis starting at distal end; pedicels pink to pale violet; bracts 5--13 mm long, borne between 2 flowers, occasionally with a leaf-like appendage, with double sheaths, appearing double boat-shaped, shorter than spathella; tepals free, 5--20; stamens 5--35 (--40), in 1 or 2 whorls; filaments free or united in pairs or groups at base, linear, terete, pink to pale violet, persistent and indurate in fruit; anthers dehiscing extrorsely in inner whorl, introrsely in outer whorl. Capsules ovoid; valves equal, each with 2--13 ribs; stigmas linear or spatulate. Seeds up to 2000 or more in each capsule. About six spp., northern to central South America. |
