SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 0 NUMBER 23 

Flora of the Marquesas, 

1 : Ericaceae-Convolvulacae 

Murie-Helenee Sachet 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS 

City of Washington 

1975 
ABSTRACT 

Sachet, Marie-Helene. Flora of the Marquesas, 1 : Ericaceae-Convolvulaceae. 

Smithsonian Contributions to Botany, number 23, 34 pages, 1 figure, 1975.-This 

is the first installment of a vascular Flora of the Marquesas Islands (French 

Polynesia). It contains floristic taxonomic treatments, keys, synonymy, descriptions, distribution, ethnobotany including uses and vernacular names, citations 

of geographic records, and herbarium specimens of the families Ericaceae, 

Epacridaceae, Myrsinaceae, Primulaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Sapotaceae, Oleaceae, 

Loganiaceae, Gentianaceae, Apocynaceae, Asclepiadaceae, and Convolvulaceae. 

A brief introduction outlines the history of the botany of the Marquesas, the 

materials on which the flora is based, problems in interpreting and using some 

of the collections, the climatic and geographic setting of the Marquesan Archipelago, and acknowledgments. Other families will follow in future installments 

as they are completed. 

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE is handstamped in a limited number o€ initial copies and is recorded 

in the Institution’s annual report, Smithsonian Year. SI PRESS NUMBER 5265. SERIES COVER 

DESIGN: Leaf clearing from the katsura tree Cercidiphyllum japoizicurn Siebold and Zuccarini. 

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 

Sachet, Marie-Helene 

Flora of the Marquesas. 

(Smithsonian contributions to botany; no. 23) 

Bibliography: p. 

Supt. of Doc. no.: SI 1.2923 

CONTENTS: 1. Ericaceae-Convolvulaceae. 

1. Botany-Marquesas Islands. 

tributions to botany; no. 23. 

QK1 .S2747 no.23, etc. [QK473.M35] 581’.08s [581.9’96‘31] 74-30425 

I. Title. 11. Series: Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian con- 
Contents 

Page 

Introduction ................................................. 1 

Ericaceae .............................................. 

Epacridaceae . . ....................................... 6 

Myrsinaceae ........................................... 

Primulaceae ........................................ 

Sapotaceae ................................................. 13 

Oleaceae .......................................... 14 

Loganiaceae ......................................... 17 

Gentianaceae ............................................... 18 

Apocynaceae ................................................ 19 

Asclepiadaceae ........................................... 

Convolvulaceae ................................................ 27 

Literature Cited ............................................ 34 

Plumbaginaceae .......................................... 12 

... 

111 
I I HATUTAS ISLAND 

' vartuha * 

E IAO 

FRENCH POLYKJESIA 

I 

NUKUHIVA I 

FATKHUKU 

THE 

MARUSAS 

ISLANDS 
Flora of the Marquesas, 

I : Ericaceae-Convolvulacae 

Marie-Helene Sachet 

Introduction 

The Marquesas (7°50‘-10035’S, 138°25’-140050’W) 

are one of the eastern peripheral island groups in 

the Pacific Polynesian Triangle. The other major 

high island archipelago on the eastern edge of the 

island-strewn central Pacific, Hawaii, has one of the 

most interesting and remarkable floras in the world. 

It has received an enormous amount of attention 

and, while not yet fully known, is one of the best 

documented tropical floras. The Marquesas were 

discovered by Europeans almost 200 years earlier 

than Hawaii (or Tahiti), but their flora has remained one of the more inadequately studied of 

insular floras. 

The Marquesas are less isolated than Hawaii and 

are only about one-third as high in elevation. Their 

area is less than 10 percent that of the Hawaiian 

group. The flora is smaller and the degree of endemism less. How much smaller and how much 

less than the Hawaiian 95 percent endemic is not 

known. The total land area is only about 1275 km2, 

little larger in aggregate than the islands of Tahiti 

and Moorea together. Distances are approximately 

750 nautical miles to Tahiti, about 1900 to Hawaii, 

and 3000 to the Galapagos Islands. 

Like the Hawaiian and Society islands, the Marquesas are high volcanic islands. Unlike the others, 

especially Tahiti, they lack a coastal plain and 

almost completely lack coral reefs. Lowland areas 

occur only at the mouths of rivers. The islands rise 

abruptly from the ocean in dark steep forbidding 

Marie-Helene, Department of Botany, National Museum of Nattcral History, Smithsonian Instituiion, Washing. 

ton, D.C. 20560. 

cliffs with scatterei. shrubs anc vines clinging here 

and there. The two largest islands are also the 

highest, Nukuhiva (1185 m) and Hivaoa (1260 m). 

The volcanic masses soar to narrow steep crests, 

which form the backbones of the islands. The slopes 

below these long ridges are often eroded into 

cirques surrounded by precipitous slopes and cliffs, 

and narrowing downward into canyon-like valleys. 

After a break in slope, the gentler relief of some 

of the interfluves, occasionally broad and rather 

flat-topped, gives the impression of sloping, dissected plateaus ending abruptly at the coast with 

a sudden drop. Elsewhere, sharp and narrow ridges 

tumble seaward. Nukuhiva has a broad elevated 

interior basin with boggy areas, called the Tovii, 

which has certainly not been completely explored 

for plants. The island of Uapou is crowned with 

tall spires of phonolitic trachyte. 

There are small steep desert islands in the group 

and a sand islet on a coral bank, of which very 

little is known. 

The climate of the region is tropical oceanic, 

constantly warm, with high atmospheric humidity, 

local sporadic rain showers, and heavy orographic 

rainfall where the mountainous islands interfere 

with the prevailing easterly trade winds. However, 

the simple pattern of windward-leeward trade-wind 

effect in the Marquesas is very much complicated 

by the dissected topography and other factors. The 

“backbones” of the islands are usually bathed in 

mists and crowned with very mossy “cloudforest.” 

But on low lying areas, the trade winds exert a 

desiccating effect. The lower uninhabited islands, 

the “desert” islands, appear quite arid and there 

are years of prolonged drought. On the western 

1 
2 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

“plateaus” of Nukuhiva and Hivaoa stretch arid 

areas, with a vegetation of grasses and scattered 

woody plants, including very interesting species, 

such as sandalwood and Cordia lutea, a shrub otherwise known from dry Ecuador, Chile, and the 

Galapagos Islands. The deep valleys contain 

streams, many of which are frequently dry; and the 

high waterfalls tumbling down the cliffs of the 

higher cirques often disappear. 

In Atuona, on Hivaoa, masses of cool air may 

flow down the slopes at night and chill the village 

to a surprising degree. The overall picture is that, 

with a relatively uniform temperature and atmospheric humidity, there is great and quite unpredictable variation in rainfall (except perhaps for 

the crests) and a mosaic of local climates. The 

pattern is much less orderly and predictable than 

on Tahiti, for instance. 

Hurricanes are unknown in the Marquesas, but 

tsunamis of the South Pacific have often caused 

extensive flooding of the small alluvial plains at the 

valley mouths, where the modern villages are usually located, creating extensive destruction and loss 

of life and crops. 

A more detailed description of the geography 

and vegetation will be omitted at this time, because 

little information has become available since the 

work of Adamson (based in part on LeBronnec’s 

field work), Aubert de la Rue (I958), Decker 

(1970), and others. Sachet and Fosberg (1955, 1971) 

include references on Marquesan vegetation. More 

field work is in progress or planned, and it should 

provide much additional material for a later detailed account of Marquesan nature. The flora is 

also receiving renewed attention, and later parts of 

this series will surely reflect this welcome interest 

in the Marquesas. 

The Marquesan flora was included in the French 

Polynesian flora of Drake del Castillo (1892), as 

well as in his partially completed Illustrated Flora 

of the Pacific Islands (1886-1892), both of which 

were based on what casual collections were available to the author. Forest B. H. and Elizabeth D. 

IV. Brown spent 17 months in the Marquesas on 

the Bayard Dominick Expedition in 1921-1922 

(Brown, 1931:3-9). With more experience and better support in the field, they could have, in the 

amount of time available, gathered materials for a 

flora adequate for reasonable phytogeographic 

statistical comparison, at least if the accumulated 

material in the Paris herbarium had been included. 

While the Browns made reasonably good collections of the lowland flora on several of the larger 

islands, some of the smaller islands and most of the 

high mountains on the larger ones were very inadequately covered. Relatively small collections made 

since have yielded some remarkable finds and a 

high percentage of novelties (Fosberg, 1939; Fosberg and Sachet, 1966, 1975). 

F. Brown’s Flora of Southeastern Polynesia 

(1935) is essentially a report on the plants collected 

on the Bayard Dominick Expedition by the Browns, 

on the Whitney Expedition by Quayle, Jones, and 

R. Beck, and by the Pacific Entomological Survey. 

Earlier collections not represented in the Bernice P. 

Bishop Museum herbarium were not included, 

except as they may have been recorded by Drake 

del Castillo. In addition, the work suffers from 

erratic writing and non-existent editing. There are 

glaring errors in identifications; under some species, 

full descriptions and specimen citations are included, elsewhere they are casual or partial, or 

absent altogether. Nevertheless, up to now, this 

work has remained the only modern flora available 

for French Polynesia, and has been very useful to 

many. 

Martin L. Grant had accumulated in catalog 

form a tremendous amount of data on French 

Polynesia, centered on the Society Islands to be 

sure, but including the Marquesas as well, and his 

files are available to us. None of his work was 

published during his life-time and only a few 

families have recently been treated in print for the 

Society Islands (Grant, Fosberg, and Smith, 1974). 

The inadequacy of F. Brown’s work, added to 

the fact that a number of collections have been 

made during the last 40 years, make a new flora of 

the Marquesas an important desideratum, even 

though the extensive additional field work needed 

has not yet been possible. 

The series of papers initiated by the present one 

is planned to fill, to some extent, this gap in modern knowledge of Polynesian floras. It is based on 

materials studied in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 

the University of California at Berkeley, the New 

York Botanical Garden (especially the plants of 

J. G. Chapin), the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and 

on my own collections and those of Bryce G. 

Decker, to be deposited in the U.S. National 

Herbarium, on duplicates received by this herba- 
NUMBER 23 3 

rium from George W. Gillett, and on small but 

choice collections received for identification from 

Francis Hall6 and Henri Lavondles. Of special 

importance are the historical collections examined 

in the Laboratoire de Phanerogamie, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; at the British 

Museum (Natural History), and Kew. These 18th 

and 19th century collections from the Marquesas 

(and from other Pacific island groups) have often 

been ignored in early 20th century work on the 

Pacific floras, as in F. Brown’s work on southeastern 

Polynesia. In Paris, especially, lack of staff and 

emphasis on other parts of the world have resulted 

in such specimens not being readily available for 

study, especially to workers in Honolulu and other 

American centers who could not easily travel to 

European institutiox Because I have been able to 

spend some time in Europe, though not nearly 

enough as yet, the present flora suffers less from 

inadequate attention to these historical collections. 

Starting with the Forsters on Captain Cook’s 

second voyage in 1774, a number of European 

visitors, many of them French Navy surgeons or 

pharmacists, gathered plants in the Marquesas, on 

which the earlier described species were based, as 

were Drake del Castillo’s treatments. Prominent 

among these were Bennett in 1835, Hinds and 

Barclay in 1840, Dupetit-Thouars in 1838 and 

1842, Hombron and Le Guillou in 1836, LeBatard 

in 1844, Mercier in 1847, Jardin in 1854-1855, 

Lenormand in 1857, and Savatier in 1877. I have 

not seen the collections made by Langsdorff in 1804 

during the Russian around-the-world expedition 

under Krusenstern. 

Unfortunately, as is the case with so many early 

collectors’ notations, the herbarium labels are often 

deficient or difficult to decipher or interpret. The 

collections were separated early and labeled by the 

owners of large private herbaria, so that duplicates 

of a collection may bear different labels. Dates 

given are often those of receipt in the herbarium 

rather than that of actual gathering. 

The precision needed to satisfy modern requirements for typification of species is not aIways easy 

to achieve. I hope that in this respect the present 

flora may make a substantial contribution. 

The 20th century specimens present less problems than the earlier ones and are usually numbered consecutively and clearly labeled and dated, 

although some include very little data. One of the 

most important collections, however, that of the 

Pacific Entomological Survey, offers complications. 

I worked on it in 1963 in Atuona and have studied 

the plants in other herbaria since then, so I will 

describe its history in some detail. 

The Pacific Entomological Survey, under the 

aegis of the Bishop Museum, sponsored insect 

collecting expeditions in various Pacific Island 

groups, the most important such project being that 

in the Marquesas, which lasted from January 1929 

to January 1932. A summary of this work, as well 

as a description of the archipelago, is given by 

A. M. Adamson (1936), one of the two entomologists of the party. The director of the party was 

E. P. Mumford, and together they stayed in the 

Marquesas until April 1930. In addition to insects 

and other small invertebrates, host plants were 

collected, mostly by Adamson and the local assistants, the principal one of whom was the Frenchman G. LeBronnec (Sachet, 1966). Together, 

Adamson and LeBronnec collected over 600 numbers and, after the departure of the entomologists, 

LeBronnec and the other assistants continued to 

gather insects and plants. The main collection was 

sent to the eminent botanist, E. D. Merrill, then 

Consulting Botanist for the Bishop Museum. In 

record time, he sent back to the Marquesas lists 

of preliminary identifications from Berkeley and 

later New York. The main collection was then 

distributed by Merrill. Some confusion arose at 

that point: All the specimens carried Bishop Museum field labels with the heading “Pacific Entomological Survey” and laboriously typed in the 

Marquesas in multiple copies. The actual collectors 

were not mentioned. In the Bishop Museum, where 

the main set is deposited, herbarium labels were 

prepared that include some of the data from the 

field labels and cite the collectors as Mumford and 

Adamson, as in Merrill’s lists of identifications. An 

important set remained in Berkeley, with herbarium labels prepared by Merrill. the collectors 

being cited as Mumford and Adamson, and little or 

no data included from the field labels, which therefore provide essential data when mounted on the 

sheets. The same is true of the partial set sent 

from Berkeley to the New York Botanical Garden, 

and of the plants received later in New York. 

However, some Berkeley duplicates and most New 

York ones are labeled “Adamson and Mumford.” 

There are small numbers of the Pacific Entomo- 
4 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

logical Survey plants in other herbaria; and the 

partial set retained by LeBronnec (unlabeled, except for copies of the field labels) is now in my 

hands for study and will eventually be turned over 

to the herbarium in Paris, or at least that part of 

it that has not suffered too much from insect damage and other vicissitudes. 

With his preliminary lists, Merrill sent advice 

on improving the collections and requests for additional material of sterile or inadequate specimens. 

After the departure of the entomologists, LeBronnec attempted to recollect the desired material, and 

numbered his collections “Ex 2” meaning extra 

material of no. 2. Starting in October 1930, he 

tried to find the same species again and, on the 

whole, succeeded remarkably well. Merrill did not 

see these collections, and in the Bishop Museum 

they were labeled “Pacific Entomological Survey.” 

There are other complications which need not be 

detailed here, but which have led me to decide 

that this major Marquesan collection should be 

cited in a uniform way, especially in a flora. As 

on the field labels, the collectors will be mentioned 

as “PES” (Pacific Entomological Survey), followed 

in parentheses by “M & A” (Mumford and Adamson), or “A & M” (Adamson and Mumford), or 

whatever collectors’ names are on the herbarium 

labels. Since my return from the Marquesas in 

November 1963, I have taken every opportunity 

to examine specimens of this collection in Honolulu, Berkeley, and New York, and I now have a 

fairly complete catalog of it, which I plan to publish at a later date. 

The synonymy given in most cases is not exhaustive, but includes those names used in the 

literature on the Marquesas and neighboring 

islands, basionyms of accepted names, and what 

other names are useful in interpreting the usages 

adopted in earlier works. The references given in 

the synonymy, likewise, are only those needed to 

document the names listed and those that were 

sources of information incorporated into this paper. 

All references have been verified. Free use has been 

made of all published sources available, of the 

documents and manuscript notes accumulated over 

50 years of residence in the Marquesas by G. LeBronnec, as well as of data recorded on herbarium 

labels and in my own notes. 

Herbarium symbols accompanying citations are 

those of Index Herbariorun, edition V, 1964, with 

the addition of “Fo,” indicating specimens still 

undistributed by F. R. Fosberg and myself and 

“LeB” for the LeBronnec set of the Pacific Entomological Survey collection. Abbreviations used very 

frequently in synonymy are as follows: F. Brown, 

Flora (F. Brown, 1935); Drake, Flore (Drake del 

Castillo, 1892); and Drake, 111. (Drake del Castillo, 

Like other island groups in the Pacific, the 

Marquesas were “discovered” on repeated occasions 

and given sets of Spanish, French, and English 

names in addition to their Marquesan names 

(Brigham, 1900: 184; Jourdain, 1970). The latter 

are rendered with a variety of spellings depending 

on the nationality of the person or his knowledge 

of Polynesian languages. In this series of papers 

on the flora, the simplest spellings of the Marquesan names (Figure 1) will be used throughout, with 

the name as listed on the label added only when 

there might be some confusion. Marquesan is one 

of the Polynesian languages and includes at least 

two principal dialects: the northwest dialect oE 

Nukuhiva and Uahuka and the southwest one of 

Hivaoa and Fatuiva. The main differences in pronunciation are that “k” in the northwestern dialect 

becomes “n” in the southeastern dialect (thus 

“Uahuka” is called “Uahuna” in the southern 

islands), and “h” (NW) is replaced by “f” (SE). 

There are also some cases where quite different 

words are used for the same thing, on different 

islands, and this is true of plant names. All Marquesans know Tahitian to a certain extent, and 

many ornamentals or other plants brought from 

Tahiti often retain their Tahitian names. 

Of all the plant collectors who have worked in 

the Marquesas, few knew Marquesan. The only 

one who has some critical knowledge of Marquesan 

linguistics is Henri Lavondes, who collected a few 

plants in 1966. LeBronnec had good Marquesan 

informants, but he had to render the sounds as 

best he could, or following missionary usage. I will 

cite the names as given on herbarium labels or in 

books, with occasional comments when I know 

them to be in error. Altitudes are listed as they 

appear on the labels, with approximate metric 

conversions supplied in brackets where necessary. 

Such figures mean little except as very general 

orders of magnitude, as few botanists carry altimeters and there are no topographic maps of the 

Marquesas. 

1886-1 892). 
NUMBER 23 5 

Indebtedness to the authorities and staffs of the 

institutions where I have worked and who have 

loaned specimens to me is gratefully acknowledged. 

I wish to expess my appreciation especially to the 

Bernice P. Bishop Museum, where I am always 

made to feel at home, as at the Botany Department 

of the University of Hawaii, and to my friends and 

colleagues in Paris, who, year after year, have 

helped me track down 18th and 19th century collections and documents. In the Marquesas, I salute 

the memory of a great born-naturalist, G. LeBronnec, with whom I worked every day for many 

weeks, and acknowledge the good-natured help of 

his family. In Tahiti, the former Service de 

I’Agriculture, the French overseas research office, 

ORSTOM, the representatives of the Paris Museum d’Histoire Naturelle and, of course, the 

governor’s office and other branches of the government, all gave me support, advice, and help during 

my visits. 

Outstanding has been the help of my dear 

friends Jean-Noel and Nora Maclet, who are still 

growing some rare Marquesan plants in their beautiful hillside gardens above Papeete and helping 

me in many different ways. 

In starting this series of papers on the Marquesan flora, I wish to recognize the help of Dr. F. R. 

Fosberg, whose assistant I was for many years and 

who introduced me to Pacific studies and taught 

me a great deal. Perhaps most important, as a 

senior colleague, he has always provided me with 

moral support and encouragement, as well as 

advice, when needed. 

EFUCACEAE 

Shrubs, subshrubs, herbs or rarely trees; leaves 

usually alternate, simple, exstipulate, usually more 

or less serrate or dentate; flowers bisexual, solitary 

or more usually in spikes, racemes or racemose 

panicles; calyx of 4-7, usually 5, variously connate 

sepals: corolla of the same number of petals, free 

or usually united, often urceolate; stamens twice 

the number of corolla lobes, rarely the same number, usually free, filaments rarely more or less 

united, anthers often appendaged, cells opening by 

terminal pores or slits; pistil 1, ovary superior or 

inferior, cells 4-10, usually 5, placentation axile, 

ovules usually many, occasionally as few as 1 in a 

cell, style 1, often curved; fruit a capsule or berry; 

seeds usually small, and numerous, rarely few and 

larger. 

A large nearly cosmopolitan family. One genus 

in the Marquesas. 

Vaccinium L. 

Vacciniuin L., Gen. PI., ed. 5, 166, 1754 [= 17531. 

Shrubs, dwarf-shrubs, rarely small trees; flowers 

usually axillary, solitary, or in small clusters; 

corolla typically urceolate, rarely campanulate or 

rotate, gamopetaious; anthers variously appendaged; 

ovary inferior, with many ovules; fruit a berry with 

many seeds, in many species edible. 

Taken in a broad sense, an almost cosmopolitan 

genus, especially in cool or mountainous regions. 

One species in the Marquesas. 

The genus Vaccinium is commonly represented 

in the higher regions of Polynesia, as well as in 

other Pacific islands. In southeast Polynesia, with 

the exception of V. rapae Skottsberg described as 

endemic in Rapa, all the island plants have commonly been referred to Vaccinizim cereum (L.f.) 

Forster sensu lato, described from Tahiti. 

Vaccinium cereum (L.f.) Forster f. 

Vaccinium cereum (L.f.) Forster f., Prodr., 28, 1786.-SkottsAndromeda cerea L.f., Suppl., 238, 1781. 

berg, Acta Hort. Gothob., 8:87, 91-97, 1933. 

Small shrub, branchlets and leaf-bases somewhat 

puberulent to glabrous; leaves oval to broadly 

obovate, up to 4 X 2.5 cm, very slightly to markedly shortly acuminate, margins minutely serrulate 

to subentire, blades stiff, reticulate-veined, petioles 

very short, thick; flowers on pedicels up to 8-10 

mm long, with one or two bractlets near base; calyx 

lobes ovate, 2-3 mm long; corolla white, ovoidurceolate, to 1 cm long, with 5 ovate lobes; anthers 

with 2 subulate erect or divergent appendages; 

fruit purple-black, with many angular seeds. 

The type is from the Society Islands. 

Skottsberg (1933) made a detailed study of this 

species, in which he recognized two varieties from 

Tahiti with two forms each and one variety from 

Rarotonga, and he referred the Marquesan V. 

adenandrum to var. cereum f. eriostemon Skottsberg. 

Forest Brown, on the basis of more material, 
6 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

regarded the Marquesan plant as V. cereum var. 

adenandrum, which is the disposition adopted here. 

Certain Marquesan specimens, in their sharply 

serrate leaf margins and pubescent stems resemble more var. cereum. Evidence is insufficient to 

tell if they constitute a separate population or are 

merely aberrant individuals. 

Vnccinium cereum var. adenandrum (Decaisne) 

F. Brown 

Vaccinium cereum var. adenandrum (Decaisne) F. Brown, 

Flora, 215, 1935.-Fosberg and Sachet, Smithsonian Contr. 

Bot., Zl:l, 1975. 

Vaccinium adenandrum Decaisne, Bot. Voy. Venus t.17, 1846; 

23, 1864. 

Vacciniurn cereus sensu Jardin, Mem. SOC. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, 5:296, 313, 1857. 

Vaccinium cereum sensu Drake, Ill., 223, 1886 [1892]; Flore, 

115, 1892 [pro parte]. 

Vaccinium cereum var. cereum f. eriosternon Skottsberg, Acta 

Hort. Gothob., 8:92-93, 1933 [pro parte]. 

Stems usually glabrous; leaves usually obscurely 

serrulate, broadly elliptic to broadly oblong or 

obovate; flowers glabrous, filaments prominently 

pilose. 

Type from the Marquesas. 

SPECIMENSEEN.-without locality, probably 

from the Marquesas, s.col1. no. 42 bis (US), the 

label says “toatoa,” which is the Marquesan namk 

cited by Decaisne, so this sheet may be part of the 

type of var. adenandrum. 

Marquesas Islands: M. Henry no. 19 (P); Herbier S.F.I.M. 

168 (P). 

Nukuhiva I.: Le Batard in 1844 (P, US); “point culminant 

des montagnes,” AIercier s.n. (P); E. Jardin in 1855 NO. I01 

(P); 3500 ft [1100-1200 m], SeaEe s.n. (BISH); Tovii, Halle 

2079 (US, P, MPU); Tovii, 1000 m, F. Brown 496A (BISH), 

800111, Quayle 1222 (BISH); To’oki’i, Taupua’o’oa, 800 m, 

Decker 2013 (US, Fo, UC); Mt. Tapuaooa, 2 km from 

Tapuaooa shelter, 3 km W of Mt. Ooumu, Gillett 2158 (US, 

BISH); Tapuaooa, forest in cloud zone, 3100 ft [900-1000 m] 

PES (as A 6 M} 577 (NY sheet only). 

Uahuka I.: 500 m? Quayle I760 (BISH); 800 m? Quayle 

1834 (BISH). 

Uapou I.: Mt. Tekahoipu, 800 m, Quayle 1153 (BISH) 

(erroneously cited by F. Brown as from Fatuiva). 

Hivaoa I.: Feani, 900 m, F. Brown 972 (BISH); 3700 ft, 

[IIOO-1200 m], CEarke HOS (US); Atuona-Feani Trail, just below crest of ridge, 1200 m, Sachet and Decker 1140 (US, Fo, P, 

BISH); NE slopes of Mt. Temetiu, 700 m, PES (M 6 A) 27 

(BISH, UC, LeB); N side of Mt. Temetiu, 1100 m, PES (Af 6 

A) I45 (BISH, LeB), Atuona, mountain side, 700 m, PES 

Ex27 (BISH); Vaina, forest,, 700 m, PES (M & A) 429 (BISH, 

NY (as A 6. M), LeB). 

Tahuata I.: Halle 2177 (US, P, MPU). 

Fatuiva I.: Omoa Valley, 800 m, F. Brown 1082 (BISH). 

ETHNOB0TANY.-Jardin (101) gives the name 

“heua (Kanac)” from Nukuhiva, “Kanac” meaning 

here Marquesan (heua usually applies to Metrosideros sp. in Nukuhiva, and may have been recorded in error for Vaccinium). Decaisne gave the 

name toatoa, which is probably from the southern 

Marquesas. F. Brown (Flora) cited hueki from 

Nukuhiva, and puatoatoa from Fatuiva, and said 

the fruits are eaten in times of famine. LeBronnec 

(MS) tried to identify “toatoa” with the help of 

old Marquesans, whom he considered to be reliable informants. They could only report that they 

had heard it said that it was a plant of high 

regions, the seed of which was used in medicine. 

EPACRIDACE AE 

Shrubs or small trees; leaves alternate or spiral, 

usually stiff, small, veins subparallel, exstipulate; 

flowers usually bisexual, actinomorphic, pedicels 

often bracteate; calyx 4-6 lobed, persistent; corolla 

gamopetalous, 4-6 (usually 5) lobed, aestivation 

imbricate or valvate; stamens same number and 

alternate with lobes, attached on corolla or basally, 

often alternating with tufts of hair or glands, 

anthers 1-celled, dehiscing longitudinally; pistil 1, 

ovary superior, 1-10 celled, placentation axile, 

ovules 1 to many in a cell, style 1, stigma capitate; 

fruit a capsule or drupe. 

Mainly Australasian, with scattered outliers in 

Polynesia, Micronesia, and Malesia. One genus in 

Polynesia. 

Styphelia J. E. Smith 

Styphelia J. E. Smith, Spec. Bot. New Holland, 45, 1795. 

Cyathodes Labillardiere, Novae Holland. PI. Sp., 57, 1804-06 

[1805]. 

Ericoid shrubs; leaves rather crowded, small, 

stiff, entire; flowers axillary, pedicels with imbricate bracts; corolla short, tubular, lobes recurved 

or reflexed at least in age; fruit a rather mealy 

drupe. 

A genus of many species, mostly Australian, some 

Melanesian, a \cry few Polynesian, one Microne- 
NUhlBER 23 7 

sian. One variety of a Hawaiian species in the 

Marquesas. 

Styphelia tameiameiae (Chamisso & Schlechtendal) 

F. v. Mueller 

Styphelia taneiameiae (Chamisso & Schlechtendal) F. v. hluelCyathodes tarneiatneiae Chamisso & Schlechtendal, Linnaea, 

ler, Fragmenta, 6;:55, 1867. 

1:539, 1826. 

Leaves patent, broadly to narrowly elliptic, stiff, 

up to 1 cm long, dull green above, whitish with 

darker veins beneath, these forked once or Lwice 

and somewhat spreading distally; corolla white, 3 

mm long, lobes triangular, pilose within, more or 

less hooked at apex; fruit subglobose to depressed 

globose white to purplish on one side or maroon. 

A common Hawaiian species with several forms 

or varieties in southeastern Polynesia. In Hawaii 

the species occurs over a great altitudinal range 

and exhibits a perplexing array of variations that 

have yet to be elucidated. In the Marquesas, one 

variety very close to, but distinguishable from, the 

Hawaiian ones, is found at higher elevations on 

Nukuhiva. 

Styphelia tameiameiae var. marquesemis F. Brown 

Styphelia tameiameiae var. marquesensis F. Brown, Flora, 

218, 1935. 

Styphelia tameiameiae var. tameiameiae sensu Sleumer, 

Blumea, 12:162, 1963. 

Styphelia tameiameiae f. marquesensis (F. Brown) Grant, 

Fosberg, and Smith, Smithsonian Contr. Bot., 17:lO-11, 

1974. 

Twigs densely short pubescent or puberulent; 

leaves oblongelliptic 9-15 X 2-3 mm, leaf veins 

usually less forked than in var. tameiameiae, outer 

ones forked one or more times, inner 1-3 quite 

parallel, some slightly forked once, rarely more 

times, bracts more strongly ciliate; flowers with 

corolla-lobes triangular-lanceolate, glabrous within; 

noticeably hooked; fruits usually red (e.g., Decker 

379, Brown 533), rarely white to rose (Decker 

2014). 

In most respects within the range of variation of 

the Hawaiian forms, but with consistently long 

narrow leaves, narrower glabrous, hooked corolla 

lobes. Sleumer (1963: 162), however, could not find 

“any constant character to separate the Marquesas 

specimens from the Hawaiian forms.” 

In spite of Brown’s rather confusing publication 

of this “form Marquesensis F. Brown, new variety,” 

it seems best cited as var. marquesensis F. Brown. 

Grant (Grant, Fosberg, and Smith, 1974:lO) discussed this plant but found no distinguishing characters, so did not separate it from s. tameiameiae. 

Found only on Nukuhiva, at high altitudes, 

locally common in scattered localities. Fruit reported (Brown 533) to be eaten by “cuckoo,” probably the “kuku,” or Marquesan fruit pigeon. 

SPECIMENSEEN.--Marquesas Islands: s.1. Heniy 5 (P), 

Heniy in 1919 (P). 

Nukuhiba I.: Tovii, 900 m, Brown 533A (BISH, holotype), 

533 (BISH, isotype), 533B (BISH, isotjpe), Quayle (cited as 

Quarks by Sleumer) 1237 (BISH), Halle 2080 (US). Tovii, 

“hauts plateaux, rare,” Henry 41 (P); Toovii, below Mt. 

Ouumu, 3200 ft. [IOOO-1100 m], Decker 379 (US, BISH), 

Taupua’o’oa, 800 m, Decker 2014 (US, P, BISH, Fo), 5 km 

SW of Tapuaooa shelter, 850 m, Gilleft 2191 (US, BISH). 

Tunoapahuhitone ridge, 3200 ft. [IOOO-1100 m], Hambuechen 

(Decker’s) 308 (US, BISH). Maauu, 3000 ft. [900-1000 m], 

PES 560 (NY(as A c!v M), LeB). 

ETHNoBoTANY.-Marquesan names: puhatikiei 

(PES 560), ohopukei (F. Brown, 1935). 

MYRSINACEAE 

Vines, shrubs, and trees, often with dark glands, 

leaves simple, unlobed, usually alternate, exstipulate; flowers unisexual or bisexual, actinomorphic, 

solitary, in axillary fascicles, terminal or axillary 

cymes, racemes or panicles; sepals 4-6, separate or 

united at base, often reddish or black-punctate, 

persistent; corolla gamopetalous, tube usually very 

short, lobes 4-6, valvate or imbricate; stamens 

usually attached to the corolla, opposite the lobes, 

rarely connate, anthers 2-celled; pistil 1, ovary 

superior, rarely inferior, locules 1 or 4-6, ovules 

1 to many, placentation free-central or axile, placentas complex, surrounding ovules; fruit fleshy, 

baccate or usually drupaceous, with 1 to few seeds. 

Pantropical, with a few temperate zone species. 

One genus with several Marquesan species. 

Until recently, only F. Brown (1935:219) had 

recognized the occurrence of this family in the 

Marquesas, and he cited under Rapanea myricifolia 

f. marquesensis all the material available to him. 

R. myricifolia Gray, however, does not occur in the 

Marquesas. 
8 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

Myrsine L. 

Myrsine L., Gen. PI., ed. 5, 90, 1754 [=1753]. 

Rapanea Aublet, Hist. P1. Guiane, 1:121, 1775. 

Small trees; leaves usually entire, rarely denticulate, sessile to short-petiolate, usually coriaceous or 

subcoriaceous, obscurely or clearly pinnately 

nerved, with or without a marginal nerve; flowers 

dioecious, axillary, solitary or in fascicles, usually 

borne below the leaves, pedicellate to subsessile, 

those of the 2 sexes similar except that the nonfunctional parts are smaller; calyx united at extreme base, sepals scale-like; corolla rotate, tube 

very short, lobes longer than tube, imbricate; 

stamens with anthers longer than filaments: pistil 

with superior ovary, 1-celled, ovule attached basally, style very short, erect, stigma peltate, sugarloaf-shaped or ligulate; fruit a globose drupe with 

thin flesh, stone globose, with one seed. 

Pantropical genus, usually found in montane 

situations, of which most species have been called 

Rapanea. The differences between Myrsine and 

Rapanea are in shape of leaf, distribution on the 

stem, margin denticulate vs. entire, and ill-defined 

stigma differences. Until something more substantial is found, it seems best to recognize only one 

genus in this relationship. The Marquesan plants 

have all been previously referred to Myrsine (or 

Rapanea) myricifolia, which is a different Fijian 

species. 

Study of recent collections led to the separation 

of several new species (Fosberg and Sachet, 1975). 

Because this is such a difficult group the original 

descriptions of the species are cited here in full. 

More collecting is very much needed (cf. Grant, 

Fosberg, and Smith, 1974:14). 

Key to Marquesan Species of Myrsine 

1. Leaves sessile, stiff -coriaceous, base cordate ................................................. M. tahuatensis 

1. Leaves petiolate (petiole sometimes very short) ................................................................... 2 

2. Leaves acuminate, less than 4.5 cm long, twigs very slender .................... M. gracilissima 

2. Leaves obtuse, rounded or acutish ........................................................................ 3 

3. 

3. Petioles thick, over 2 mm wide ........................................................................................ 4 

4. Pedicels 2-3 mm long, leaves usually over 13 cm long, submarginal vein undulating 

and distinct .................................................................... M. nukuhivensis 

4. Flowers and fruits subsessile, leaves usually less than 13 cm long, submarginal vein 

obscure ................................................................ 

Petioles slender, less than 2 mm wide. ..................................... M. odmnsonii 

Myrsine adamsonii Fosberg & Sachet 

Myrsine adamsonii Fosberg & Sachet, Smithsonian Contr. 

Bot., 21:4, 1975. 

Rapanea myricifolia f. marquesensis, F. Brown, Flora, 219, 

1935 [pro parte]. 

Rather slender shrub 34 m tall, glabrous, 

branchlets about 3 mm thick, cataphylls tightly 

wrapped around terminal buds, which are stoutly 

subulate, 4-5 mm long, leaves not especially 

crowded, blades broadly elliptic, rather thin, up to 

10 X 4.5 cm, apex bluntly acute to obtusish, both 

surfaces obscurely but rather densely papillatepunctate, venation not prominent but distinct, 

main veins 16-20 on a side, variously spaced, rather 

widely divergent from a slender midrib, neither 

precisely parallel nor opposite, one or two fainter 

and shorter ones in most intervals, main ones 

anastomosing about 3 mm from margin to form a 

somewhat undulating submarginal vein, network 

obscure, base acutish, slightly decurrent into a 

slender curved petiole 8-13 mm long; persisting 

dried flower 4-merous; calyx lobed nearly to base, 

lobes ovate, obtuse or appearing acutish because 

infolded with 1-several prominent black spots dorsally, margins thin, glandular, ciliolate, lobes 

spreading in fruit; corolla with very short tube, 

lobes elliptic, to about 2 mm long, granulate ciliolate; anthers narrowly ovate, blunt, apically papillate; stigma narrowly pyramidal, fleshy, about 2 

mm long, 4-sulcate when dry; fruits on short thick 

pedicels about 1 mm long and thick, in clusters of 

3-5 on very short tubercle-like inflorescences about 

2-3 mm long, drupe globose or subglobose, up to 

5 X 4.5 mm, surface when dry rugulose with a 

mixture of obscure pale and dark dots, crowned 
NUMBER 23 9 

with a broad disk-like very short style, and, until 

fairly mature, a subulate, sulcate, obliquely projecting stigmatic beak about 1 mm or SO long, 

immature fruits with a subpersistent lanceolatesubulate, somewhat strap-shaped stigma over 1 mm 

long, caducous before complete maturity, fruit surface with somewhat obscure pale punctation. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Nukuhiva I.: s.1. Quayk 1320 (BISH); 

900 m, Brown 496 (BISH); Tapuaooa, 3100 ft. [900-1000 m], 

fruit said to be purple, PES (M 6 A) 577 (BISH, LeB, NY 

(as A 6 M)); Toovii Valley, 800 m, near the Tapuaooa shelter, Gillett 2200 (BISH, US, type, P); Tovii, 1000 m, Herb. 

S.F.I.M. 107 (P). 

ETHNoBoTANY.-Nukuhiva name kautai (S.F.1.M. 

107). LeBronnec (MS) was never able to ascertain 

Marquesan names for this or any other species. 

Myrsine gracilissimu Fosberg & Sachet 

Myrsine gracilissirna Fosberg & Sachet, Smithsonian Contr. 

Bot., 21:6, 1975. 

Small, much-branched tree, foliage mostly at top, 

branchlets extremely slender, ultimate ones 1 mm 

or less thick, when older strongly lenticellate; cataphylls lanceolate, closely wrapped around terminal 

buds; leaves loosely scattered on branchlets, blades 

broadly lanceolate, up to 4.5 X 1 cm, sharply acuminate or even slightly caudate at apex, attenuate 

at base, margins somewhat revolute, crispate, venation very obscure, on young leaves faintly impressed 

above, main veins 8-10, at a small angle to the 

slender prominent midrib, network scarcely visible, 

lower surface densely papillate-punctate, punctation scarcely visible above, petiole very slender, 

8-12 mm long; inflorescence, like a small globose 

scaly bud, axillary, about 1.5 mm across, very few 

flowering at this season, pedicels 1-2 from an 

inflorescence, slender, 2-3 mm long; staminate 

flowers 4-merous, calyx lobed about half way, lobes 

ovate, slightly acuminate, carinate; corolla tube 

very short, completely included, lobes about 2 mm 

long, oblong, cucullate, black-punctate dorsally, 

almost erect at anthesis, margins strongly papillate; 

anthers ovate or oval, about 1.5 mm long, dehiscent 

while corolla lobes are still not spreading, apex 

papillate, pistillate flowers and fruits unavailable. 

SrEcmiENs SEEN.-HiVaOa I.: Atuona-Feani Trail, ridge 

crest and top of leeward slope in cloud-forest, 1200-1300 m, 

Sachet & Decker 1154 (US, type, P, Fo, K, MO, UH, A, 

BISH); North side of Mt. Temetiu, 1100 m, PES (M & A) 148 

(UC). 

Myrsine grantii Fosberg & Sachet 

Myrsine grantii Fosberg & Sachet, Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 

21:7, 1975. 

Shrub or small tree, glabrous; leaves chartaceous 

to coriaceous, small to moderate sized, elliptic or 

obovate, veins not prominent; flowers subsessile in 

scaly-bracteate clusters of 3-5 (-7), bracts, calyxlobes and corolla-lobes glandular-ciliolate; anthers 

sagittate, apex blunt, papillate, stigma coronaform, irregularly lobed; fruit globose or subglobose, 

5-7 mm long. 

Key to the Varieties of Myrsine grantii 

Leaves mainly obovate, mainly less than 10 cm long ............................................................ var. grrmtii 

Leaves mainly elliptic-oblong, mainly 9-1 3 cm long ............................................. var. tov5im-s 

Myrsine grantii Fosberg & Sachet var. grantii 

Glabrous shrub or small tree 3-6 m tall; cataphylls caducous, oblong to somewhat obovate, 

obtuse, 4-13 mm long; leaves coriaceous or subcoriaceous, broadly obovate to broadly oblong or 

elliptic, blades 4-13 cm x 3-6 cm, apex obtuse to 

rounded, base acute to obtuse, obscurely punctate 

beneath, more obscurely so above, veins moderately prominent above, less so beneath, somewhat 

irregular, 1.5-10 mm apart, depending on size of 

leaf, anastomosing near margin, merging there into 

obscure secondary network but not forming a 

distinct marginal vein, margin slightly revolute, 

petiole 3-4 mm wide, 3-6 mm long (rarely, in no. 

1789, leaves subsessile); flowers subsessile in fewflowered clusters, subtended by scale-like bracts, 

tetramerous; calyx 1.3-1.5 mm long, lobes ovate, 

about 1 mm long, acute to obtuse, usually with a 

large central dark spot or several dark lines; corolla 

lobes spreading, broadly elliptic or obovate, obtuse 
10 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

or rounded at apex, somewhat narrowed at base, 

notably black-punctate, margins irregularly papillate, 1.5-2 mm long, tube 1 mm long; anthers about 

1 mm long, curved, narrowly triangular sagittate, 

apex blunt, papillate; lower lobes rounded at bases; 

pistillode somewhat ovoid, somewhat over 1 mm 

long, stigma crown-like, spreading, irregularly 

undulately lobed; pistillate flowers not available; 

fruits globose or subglobose, about 5-7 mm diameter, black marked, subtended by spreading persistent calyx, crowned by scar of caducous stigma. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Uahuka I.: s.1., Whitney Exfledition 1837 

(BISH), 1789 (BISH). 

Hivaoa I.: Tenatinaei, 3620 ft Ill00 m], PES (M d. A) 492 

(BISH, type, NY (as Ad.M)); Kopaafaa, 2800 ft [800-900 m], 

PES (M C A) HO I008 (BISH, NY (as A&M)); Atuona-Feani 

trail, ridge crest, 1200-1300 m, Sachet G Decker 1180 (US, P, 

UH, Fo). Fatuiva I.: Omoa, 700 m, Brown 915 (BISH). Brown 

cited his 915 and Mumford G Adamson 492 under his 

Rapanea nyrici folia form mar4 uesensis. 

ETHNOBOTANY.-F. Brown cites tiki as the name 

on Fatuiva, presumably of his 915 collection. There 

is no other record of this name. 

Myrsine grantii var. touiiensis Fosberg & Sachet 

Myrsine grantii var. toviiensis Fosberg & Sachet, Smithsonian 

Contr. Bot., 21:8, 1975. 

Shrub to 4 m, branchlets 2-4 mm thick, brown: 

cataphylls obovate rounded at apex; leaves ellipticoblong to slightly obovate, 9-13.5 X 4-5.5 cm or 

smaller, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, apex acute 

to obtusish in genera1 outline, tip blunt to rounded, 

base from strongly contracted to cuneate or slightly 

attenuate to a very slightly winged petiole, 5-10 

mm long, 2 mm wide, variably dark punctate and 

lineate beneath, less so but papillate above, especially when young, venation not prominent, less 

so beneath, main veins rather irregularly spaced, 

12-15 (-17) on a side, usually curved downward 

(or divaricate) to join midrib, anastomosing near 

margin to form weak undulating submarginal vein, 

weaker veins in some intervals not reaching submarginal vein, network rather obscure; inflorescences reduced to very low scaly-bracted tubercles, 

bracts broadly ovate obtuse with erose brown 

glandular-ciliate margins; flowers 3-5 (-7) in a 

cluster, subsessile, calyx united about y3, lobes 4, 

ovate, obtuse to acutish, glandular-ciliolate, dark 

punctate-papillate, corolla in bud broadly ovoid, 

lobes about 1.5 mm long, ovate subacute, with 

black papillae dorsally, or these fused in lines, margins densely glandular-puberulent, in a band both 

inside and outside the actual margin; tube in bud 

extremely short; anthers or antherodes broadly 

sagittate, 1.5 mm long, blunt at apex, which is 

densely glandular-puberulent; pistil scarcely developed, style flattened, blade-like, ovate, less than 

1 mm long; immature fruit on a pedicel 1.5 mrn 

long, 1 mm thick, crowned with a disk-shaped coroniform stigma with several obscure lobes including an elongate 1-1.5 mm long subulate, angled 

one, caducous before full maturity; mature fruit 

globose, 5 mm in diameter when dry, crowned with 

a disk-like stigma scar, surface thickly beset with 

pale slightly elangate papillae, mixed with scattered black glandular dots. 

Differs from var. grantii especially in the longer, 

narrower petioles, distinct submarginal veins in 

the thinner usually elliptic-oblong leaves with veins 

curving downward to join the midrib. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Nukuhiva 1,:"Plateau de Tovii, savane, 

2 Mars 1973," F. Halle 2077 (US, type, P, MPU). 

Myrsine nukuhiuensis Fosberg & Sachet 

Mynine nukuhiuensis Fosberg & Sachet, Smithsonian Contr. 

Bot., 21:9, 1975. 

Glabrous shrub or tree up to 10 m tall, branchlets 3-5 mm thick; cataphylls ovate strongly acuminate, up to at least 7 mm long: leaves thin 

coriaceous, elliptic to elliptic-oblong, large, up to 

25 cm X 11 cm (mostly 15-20 X 6-8 cm, except 

Halle 2077a, which has much smaller leaves, narrowly elliptic, or elliptic-lanceolate, 10-14 X 3-4 

cm, petiole 9-12 mm), acute at both ends, apex 

blunt, blade somewhat black-punctate on either 

side, veins not very prominent, 5-15 mm apart, 

proximately curving downward to fuse with midrib, some weaker ones between, anastomosing distally into a looping submarginal vein from 3 to 10 

mm from margin, network of 2-3 orders of prominence between veins, petiole 7-15 mm long, 2-10 

mm thick when dried; dried fruits on pedicels 2-3 

mm long, subglobose, to 6 mm long, somewhat 

narrower when dry (only present on no. 2214, on 

label said to be red, 1.5-1.7 cm diameter when 
NUMBER 23 11 

fresh; in no, 2180, said to be bright red, 2 cm, 

seeds 5 mm diameter). 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-NukUhiva I.: s. slopes of Mt. Tapuaooa, 

Gillett 2180 (BISH, US); Toovii Valley near Tapuaooa shelter, 900 m, Gillett2214 (BISH, US, P); Ooumuu Mt., 3500 

ft [1100-1200 m], PES (M 6 A) 581 (BISH, LeB); plateau de 

Tovii, savane, Halle077n (US). 

Myrsine tahuatensis Fosberg & Sachet 

Myrsine tahuatensis Fosberg & Sachet, Smithsonian Contr. 

Bot., 21:10, 1975. 

Shrub 4 m tall, glabrous, young branchlets 5-7 

mm thick with leaves crowded at intervals, more 

widely separated between the crowded portions, 

leaf scars transversely elliptical with a broad depression above; leaves obovate, sessile, up to 22 X 11 

cm, apex obtuse to slightly bluntly acuminate, 

base somewhat auriculate or cordate, blade minutely and irregularly black-punctate, especially 

beneath, becoming stiff and subcoriaceous, main 

veins 14-22 on a side, visible above and beneath, 

irregularly placed, opposite to alternate, diverging 

at somewhat different angles, decurrent into the 

broad midrib, forking distally and anastomosing 

in arches that do not reach the margin, network 

obscure, especially beneath, older branchlets mottled light gray (possibly from lichens), bearing, 

below leaves, irregularly spirally disposed fascjcies 

of 4-7 thick scaly divergent inflorescence branches 

up to 5 mm long and 2.5 mm thick. Flowers and 

fruits unavailable, except for a single detached 

fruit with mottled, dark and pale minutely pebbled surface, obviously immature-its sides rather 

collapsed, presumably subglobose when fresh, 3 

mm long, on a thick short pedicel, 1.5 mm long, 

1 mm thick, fruit subtended by a whorl of 3 thick 

calyx-lobes (another perhaps abortive), connate at 

base, broadly triangular, papillate, apex of fruit 

crowned by a short coroniform stigma of 3 or 4 

lobes (one perhaps damaged or poorly developed), 

from an extremely low ring-like tube, lobes bluntly 

acumina te, irregularly incurved. 

This species is represented by rather inadequate 

material but seems closest to M. taitensis Gray of 

Tahiti. It differs in larger, somewhat thinner, cornpletely sessile leaves and in the conspicuously 

fasciculate (branched at base), much longer inflorescences, as well as in having the leaves tending 

more to be crowded into intervals on the branchlets (“croissance rythmique nette” ). 

huata,” 17 Mar. 1973, Halle 2171 (US, type, P, MPU). 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Tahuata.: ”Region du sommet de TaPRIMULACEAE 

Herbs, rarely shrubby; leaves opposite, whorled 

or basal, rarely alternate, simple, rarely dissected, 

exstipulate, often gland-dotted; flowers bisexual, 

usually actinomorphic, axillary or in bracteate 

racemes or umbels; calyx 4-9 lobed; corolla gamopetalous, 4-9 lobed, rotate to salverform; stamens 

4-9, opposite corolla-lobes, rarely scale-like staminodes alternating with them, anthers 2-celled; 

pistil 1, ovary superior to half-inferior, unilocular, 

with free-central placentation, ovules few to nu - 

merous, style 1, stigma usually capitate; fruit a 

5-1 0 valved capsule, or circumscissile. 

A medium-sized family, almost cosmopolitan, 

relatively few in the tropics; one genus with one 

species in the Marquesas. 

Samolus L. 

Samolus L., Sp. Pl., 171, 1753. 

Shefieldia J. R. & G. Forster, Char. Gen., 9, 1775; 17, 1776. 

Herbs, rarely slightly woody; leaves alternate or 

crowded at base; flowers in a terminal raceme or 

corymb, 5-parted, calyx united, deeply lobed, persistent, corolla exceeding calyx, lobes longer than 

tube, stamens included, inserted on tube or throat 

of corolla, staminodia alternating with them, ovary 

partly inferior, fruit a 5-valved capsule; seeds 

angular. 

Widespread mostly temperate genus of few species, mostly of wet, sometimes saline places. One 

species was found long ago in the Marquesas. 

Samolus repens (J. R. & G. Forster) Persoon 

Samolus repens (J. R. & G. Forster) Persoon, Syn. Pl., 1:171, 

Shefieldia repens J. R. & G. Forster, Char. Gen., 9, 1775; 18, 

1805. 

pl. 9, 1776. 

Herb to 20 cm tall, several stems from root 

crown, sparsely or usually not branched, stems 4- 

angled, rugose, pustulate scurfy with minute pel- 
12 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

tate white scales (or collapsed bladders?) pustules 

of stems (and especially of leaves) with pits in summits; leaves alternate, abundantly scattered along 

stems, ascending, fleshy, oblanceolate, acute, pustulate and scurfy (as stems); about 1 cm long, lower 

part involute so as to appear like a tubular petiole, 

somewhat broadly attached, pits of leaves dark so 

leaf appears punctate dorsally, rosette leaves petiolate and spatulate; inflorescence a bracteate raceme, 

1-2 cm long, 1-5 flowers, with thick receptacles, 5 

ovate fleshy sepals, involute so as to appear subulate and pustulate punctate when dry, corolla about 

4 mm long, united in lower 1 mm or so, lobes 

obovate with rounded apex. 

This species is known from New Zealand, Australia, Easter Island, and temperate South America 

(Chile); not hitherto recorded from Polynesia, 

except Easter Island. 

The description applies only to the Marquesan 

collection. Others are larger, with much longer 

leaves and longer inflorescences with more flowers. 

SPECIMEN SEEN.-Marquesas: “Noukahiva,” s. coil. s.n. (P). 

PLUMBAGINACEAE 

Herbs or shrubs, leaves simple, alternate or basal, 

exstipulate, flowers 5-parted, calyx gamosepalous, 

corolla gamopetalous, stamens 5, basally attached, 

ovary superior, 1-celled, the single ovule pendulous 

from a basal funicle, style 1 or 5, fruit an utricle or 

a circumscissile capsule. 

A small family, almost cosmopolitan, with a few 

members commonly planted as ornamentals. One 

genus is found in the Marquesas. 

Plumbago L. 

Plumbago L., Gen. PI. ed. 5, 75, 1754 [=1753]. 

Suffrutescent herbs or shrubs, flowers in simple 

or branched short racemes, these often paniculate, 

calyx tubular, !%toothed, covered by conspicuous 

very sticky stalked glands, corolla salverform, style 

filiform with 5 short stigmatic branches, fruit a 

cylindrical capsule, circumscissile near the base, 

upper part dehiscing into 5 valves. 

A pantropical genus, chiefly found in dry or 

semidry areas or moderately wet coastal lowlands, 

with one indigenous species in the Marquesas and 

one cultivated species, P. indica. Another cultivated 

one, P. auriculata, is to be expected there. English 

“Leadwort” or “Plumbago.” 

1. 

1. 

Key to Marquesan Species of Plumbago 

Corollas 2 cm or less long, limb about 1 cm across, white, leaves tending to be ovate, 

acuminate P. zeylunica 

2 

2. Leaves broadly ovate to elliptic, 3-5 cm wide, flowers red P. indica 

2. Leaves obovate to rhombic, 2 cm or less wide, flowers pale blue or white P. auriculata 

Corollas 25 cm or more long, limb 2 cm or more across 

Plumbago indica L. 

Plumbago indica L., Diss. Stickman, 24, 1754; Amoen. Acad., 

Plumbago rosea L., Sp. Pl., ed. 2, 215, 1762. 

Plumbago coccinea Salisbury, Prodr. Stirp., 122, 1796. 

4:133, 1759. 

Subshrub with slightly scandent striate stems; 

leaves ovate-elliptic decurrent into short petioles; 

flowers racemose, about 2.5 cm or more long, red. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Hivaoa I.: Atuona, near sea level, in 

coconut plantation, PES (M G A) 406 (BISH, LeB), sterile. 

Plumbago zeylanica L. 

Plumbago zeylanica L., Sp. Pl., 151, 1753.-F. Brown, Flora, 

222, 1935. 

Scrambling, semi-shrubby, leaves ovate to oblong, 

Rare in the Marquesas. 

acuminate, flowers white, about 1 cm across. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-EiaO 1.: top Of high ridge, 600 m, rare, 

Jones Ilif2C (BISH). 

Nukuhiva 1.: Henry in 1916 (P); Hakaheu, “tres rare,” 

Herb. S.F.I.M. 133 (P); Hatiehu, 6 m, Brown and Henry 669 
NUMBER 23 13 

(BISH); Hakaui Valley, 50 m, PES (M dr A) 644 (BISH) 

(very large-leafed, sterile). 

Uahuka I.: Hane-Hokatu trail, 30-40 m, Decker 1374 (US). 

Hivaoa I.: 500 m, Brown 5P (BISH, 2 sheets); Hanamenu, 

PES (M Q A) 481 (BISH, LeB) sterile. 

ETHN0BoTANY.-Marquesan names: Kahauta (PES 

644), Kohuima (S.F.Z.M. I??), kuna (PES 481), kaha 

(LeBronnec, MS, Uapou name). Said to have been 

used in medicine. 

SAPOTACEAE 

Trees and shrubs, lactiferous; leaves usually alternately or spirally arranged, simple, entire, often 

coriaceous, stipules present or, usually, absent; flowers bisexual, solitary, fascicled or cymose, axillary 

or on old wood; calyx with 4-12 lobes, united at 

base, variously arranged; corolla gamopetalous, 

deeply or shallowly 4-12 or more lobed, lobes imbricate, sometimes with appendages; stamens inserted on corolla, in several whorls, one series 

usually fertile and opposite the corolla lobes, the 

others alternating, these sometimes variously reduced to staminodia, anthers 2-celled; pistil 1, ovary 

superior usually 4-5 (sometimes less or more) 

loculed, each locule with a single ascending axile 

or sub-basal ovule, style 1; fruit a berry with 1-few 

large radially arranged seeds with lateral or basal 

scars. 

A medium-size family, mostly tropical, very difficult taxonomically. No native species known in 

the Marquesas, two widely cultivated fruit trees. 

Key to Marquesan Genera of Sapotaceae 

Leaves crowded, not silky beneath, flowers solitary in upper axils, calyx in 2 series of 3, corolla 

6-lobed, seeds elongate ................................................................................... Manilkma 

Leaves scattered, coppery-silky beneath, flowers in axillary clusters, calyx and corolla each a 

single connate 5-lobed series, seeds hemispherical ............................................. Chrys+hylZurn 

Chrysophyllum L. 

Chrysophyllurn L., Gen. Pl., ed. 5, 88, 1754 [=1753]. 

Trees or shrubs, leaves scattered on rather flexuous branches (or crowded), tending to be copperysericeous; flowers in axillary clusters, pedicellate, 

usually with 5 sepals, connate at base, 5 petals, 5 

stamens, no staminodia, ovary 5-12 locular, fruit a 

large berry, seeds compressed, radially arranged. 

A pantropical genus, with one or two widely 

distributed species cultivated as ornamentals and 

for their fruit. 

Chrysophyllurn cainito L. 

Chrysophyllurn cainito L., Sp. Pl., 192, 1753. 

Tree to 10 m, branches slender, branchlets 

slightly zig-zag, densely coppery-sericeous, leaves 

not crowded, elliptic, usually 7-10 X 34 cm, or 

slightly larger, or on sterile shoots much larger, 

subcoriaceous, apex slightly acuminate, upper surface subglabrous, lower densely and conspicuously 

coppery-sericeous, veins widely divergent, 2-5 mm 

apart, anastomosing near margin into an undulating rather obscure submarginal vein, weaker veins 

between the main ones, petioles 1-1.5 cm long; 

flowers on pedicels up to 1 cm, in dense axillary 

fascicles of up to 20, pedicels and sepals densely 

coppery-sericeous, calyx 2 mm long united about 

half way, lobes concave, round, margins thin, scarious, corolla somewhat campanulate, 4 mm long, 

greenish white, lobed about v3 into broadly ovate 

rounded lobes, each with a coppery silky patch 

without, margins glabrous, glabrous within 

throughout, stamens very small, anthers broadly 

oblong, 0.7 mm long, attached by short triangular 

filaments to middle of bases of corolla lobes, ovary 

broadly ovoid, densely silky, stigma a lobed subsessile disk, fruit fleshy, purple, globose, about 6- 

10 cm diameter with about 8-10-(-12) radially 

arranged (in cross-section) somewhat compressed, 

sharp-edged semicircular seeds about 18 X 12 mm, 

brown, smooth, with a large elliptic, carinate ventral scar. 

ETHNOBOTANY.-A few large trees cultivated in 

Atuona, brought from Tahiti where it is well 

known. English: star-apple; French name: pomme 

&toile from the star-shaped arrangement of seeds 

in the fruit pulp. 
14 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

Manilkara Adanson 

Manilkara Adanson, Fam. PI., 166, 1763 [nom. cons.]. 

Achrus L., Gen. PI., ed. 5, 497, 1754 [=1753] [nom. rej.]; 

Sp. PI., 1190, 1753. 

Trees, lactiferous, leaves usually leathery, tending 

to be crowded near ends of twigs, flowers pedicellate, axillary, sepals in 2 series of 3 (rarely 4), 

corolla tubular, 6-lobed; stamens opposite lobes, 

staminodia alternate with them, ovary 6-14 celled, 

seeds with narrow ventral scar. 

A small pantropical genus, one species of which, 

M. zapota, is planted widely for its sweet fleshy 

fruit; its latex is the chicle of commerce. 

Manilkara zapota (L.) van Royen 

Manilkara zapota (L.) van Royen, Blumea, 7:410, 1953. 

Achras zapota L., Sp. PI., 1190, 1753. 

Achras sapota sensu F. Brown, Flora, 223, I935 [non L., Sp. 

PI., ed. 2, 469, 17621. 

Tree to 10 m or more, young parts reddish 

pubescent; leaves crowded at ends of branchlets. 

blades elliptic to somewhat oblong or rarely 

slightly obovate, to 10 X 4.5 cm, thin coriaceous, 

somewhat falcate, apex rounded to obtuse or 

acutish, base acute to obtusish, main veins widely 

divergent, 24 mm apart, obscure beneath, not 

conspicuous above, both sides finely but rather 

obscurely reticulate-venulose, petioles slender, 12- 

25 mm long, reddish pubescent, glabrate when 

older; flowers on pedicels 10-13 mm long, solitary 

in axils of uppermost leaves or of small oblong 

bracts, sometimes crowded at tips of stems, subtended by two minute bracteoles, pedicels and 

sepals densely brown tomentose, buds broadly 

ovoid, almost hemispherical, very obtuse, 6-7 mm 

long, 5 mm wide; sepals in 2 series of 3 (4) each, 

8-10 mm long, outer broadly ovate, narrowed somewhat to apex, inner broadly elliptic, obtuse, all 

densely tomentose without and near margins within; corolla glabrous, about 8-10 mm long, glabrous 

tube 6-7 mm long, lobes 6, narrowly ovate, apex 

rounded or tridentate, alternating with 6 petaloid 

staminodia, stamens 6, elliptic, 2 mm long, mucronulate on short filaments inserted opposite 

corolla lobes, a ring of dense wool surrounding 

ovary at base of corolla, ovary ovoid, densely 

woolly, style thick, glabrous, somewhat exceeding 

corolla, stigma gummy, not much larger than style; 

fruit globose, brown, up to 7-8 cm across, skin 

dull, scurfy, flesh thick, dark honey-colored, very 

sweet, seeds up to 10-12, ellipsoid, 2-2.5 cm long, 

somewhat compressed, dark brown to black, 

smooth, scar lance-linear, ventral, not reaching 

apex of seed. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Hivaoa I.: single tree on grounds of 

Compagnie Navale, Atuona, F. Brown (1935:223); Atuona, 

seen in garden in 1963 by Sachet. 

ETHN0BoTANY.-vernacular names: English, Sapodilla; French, Sapotille. 

OLEACEAE 

Trees or shrubs, sometimes scandent, leaves opposite, rarely alternate or subalternate, simple or 

compound, exstipulate; A owers bisexual in usually 

few-flowered fascicles, cymes or panicles, sepals free, 

corolla gamopetalous (rarely absent), actinomorphic, lobes 4 or 5, valvate or imbricate, stamens 2, 

ovary superior, 2-loculed, with 2 or more ovules in 

a cell, style 1, stigma minute, fruit a capsule, berry, 

drupe, or samara. 

A rather small, widely distributed family, containing the domestic olive and a number of ornamentals, including the lilacs, privets, and jasmines. 

Only one genus, Jasminum, in the Marquesas. The 

olive tree was imported into the Marquesas, and 

LeBronnec (MS) mentioned seeing a large tree in 

Taiohae, probably in 1929 or 1930, which never 

bore fruit. There are no collections and no recent 

observations. 

Jasminum L. 

]asminun L., Gen. PI., ed. 5, 7, 1754 [=1753]. 

Vines or scandent shrubs; leaves usually opposite, unifoliolate or pinnately compound; flowers 

in few-flowered cymes; calyx funnel-form or campanulate, with 4-9 teeth; corolla salverform, lobes 

4-10, imbricate, stamens included; fruit a geminate 

berry with 2 seeds in each half. 

Old World genus with a number of cultivated 

ornamental species; several species known from the 

Marquesas, possibly one native. 
NUMBER 23 

Key to Marquesan Species of Jasminum 

1. Leaves compound, leaflets 3 or more. ................................................................................... 2 

2. 

2. Leaves pinnate, leaflets 5 or more ......................................................... J. grandiflorum 

1. Leaves unifoliolate or apparently simple ...................................................................................... 3 

3. Leaves subcordate to cordate, plant conspicuously pubescent, corolla lobes pointed .......... 

J. multiflorum 

3. Leaves rounded to obtuse at base, plant glabrous or only very thinly pubescent ....... 4 

4. Leaves with basal pair of veins very strong and ascending, appearing trinerved, corolla 

lobes linear-lanceolate, apices sharply acute or acuminate ................. J. luurifolium 

4. Leaves without a strong basal pair of veins, corolla lobes more than half as broad as 

Leaves trifoliolate ................................................................................................ J. didymum 

............................................................................................................... 

15 

long, apices obtuse to rounded 

Jasminum didymum Forster f. 

Jasminum didymitm Forster f., Prodr., 3, l786.-F. Brown, 

Flora, 225, 1935. 

This species was reported by Brown from the 

Marquesas and other islands, but he cited no specimens (nor indeed of the other species of Jasminum 

he discussed), and I have found none in the herbaria where I have worked. It may be a misidentification. The plant, however, is commonly found 

in other islands of southeastern Polynesia, and 

there are many collections from Tahiti, so it might 

occur in the Marquesas. 

The following description is based on specimens 

from other islands of Polynesia. Liana with glabrous, sprawling, scrambling, or rarely somewhat 

twining stems, leaves trifoliolate, petioles 1-2 cm 

long, petiolules 4-15 mm, leaflets usually very 

broadly ovate or elliptic or oval, up to 9 X 5 cm, 

obtuse to acuminate, usually with 5 rather strong 

nerves from just above base, rather plinerved, base 

rounded to subcordate. Inflorescences loosely thyrsoid in axils, occasionally terminal on small 

branches, minutely puberulent, branches of thyrse 

dichasioid, the lateral pedicels branched with 2 

flowers, central pedicel 3-5 mm, whole thyrse up 

to 13 X 5 cm, usually much smaller, with up to 4 

internodes in main axis; flowers rather small for 

the genus, calyx campanulate to cylindric, about 

3 X 2 mm, truncate except for minute blunt denticulation on margins, corolla salverform, tube 

about 5-7 mm long, lobes 4-7, suborbicular about 

3 mm long, white, very fragrant; calyx in fruit 

somewhat enlarged and pedicel swollen, obconic; 

fruits 2, or one of them variously reduced or 

aborted, globose, 8-10 (-15) mm long, black. 

J. sambac 

Described from the Society Islands. The Tahitian 

name, tafifi, means a twining liana, and is also used 

for other twiners. 

Jasminum grandiflorum L. 

Jasminum grandiflorum L., Sp. Pl., ed 2, 9, 1762.-F. Brown, 

Jasminum oficinale L. var. grandiflorum (L.) Stokes, Bot. 

Jasminum oficinale f. grandiflorum (L.) Kobuski, Journ. 

Flora, 225, 1935. 

Comment. 1:21, 1830. 

Arn. Arb., 13:161, 1932. 

Loosely branched or scandent shrub, not twining, with long internodes, subglabrous, branches 

widely divergent to somewhat ascending; leaves 

pinnately compound, commonly 7-9 foliate, 5-10 

cm long, terminal leaflet ovate, acuminate, 1.5-3.5 

cm long, lateral ones smaller, obliquely ovate, 

obtuse to acute, mucronulate, petioles 12-20 mm; 

flowers in loose cymes, these terminal and on short 

lateral branchlets, the whole branch systems becoming open cymose-paniculate, terminal flowers in 

cymes on pedicels 5-15 mm long, the cyme-branches 

below them much longer, either bearing single 

bracteate flowers or very loose dichasia, sometimes 

only one lateral flower developing, sometimes one 

lateral pedicel proliferating monochasially, calyx 

tube cylindric-campanulate, about 1 mm wide and 

long, lobes 5, subulate-filiform, 5-12 mm long, 

slightly puberulent, erect or somewhat curvedspreading; corolla somewhat curved zygomorphicsalverform, tube slender, 10-17 mm long, subequal 

with limb, limb in bud fusiform, lobes 4-5, oval, 

10-17 mm long, 5-10 mm wide, rounded to obtuse 

and mucronulate at apex, corolla white within, 

purplish maroon without, fragrant. 
16 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Nukuhiva I.: low elevation, Brown h 

Brown 710 (BISH). 

Uapou I.: 10-15 m; houseyard, Hakahetau Village, ornamental, Decker 2267 (US). 

Uahuka I.: 1-10 m, village of Vaipae’e in canyon-like valley, ornamental, Decker 1617 (BISH, US, P) (a form with 

unusually small flowers). 

Hivaoa I.: Atuona, near sea level, cultivated, PES (M G. A) 

215 (BISH, LeB) “vine, flowers yellow, fragrant.” Atuona, 

cultivated, PES Ex 215 (BISH). 

ETHNoB0TANY.-Jasmine. Pitate is the Tahitian 

name for cultivated jasmines, also used in the 

Marquesas. Used for crowns (PES 215, Ex 215), 

used at funerals (Brown d. Brown 710). 

Jasminum laurifolium Roxburgh 

Jasminum laurifoliurn Roxburgh, Hort. Beng., 3, 1814 [nom. 

Jasminum angustifolium var. laurifolium Ker, Bot. Reg., 7: 

Jasminurn nitidum Auct. [non Skan], Kew Bull., 1898:225, 

nud.]; F1. Ind., 1:91, 1820. 

t. 521, 1821. 

1898. 

Shrub or climber, twigs appressed puberulent; 

leaves unifoliolate ovate to ovate lanceolate, 5-9 X 

2-3.5 cm, apex strongly acuminate, bases rounded 

to acutish, glabrous above except for puberulence 

on main nerves especially beneath, a principal pair 

of veins from at or near base and strongly ascending make the leaf appear trinervate, 2-4 weaker 

veins on each side farther up, anastomosing into 

an obscure coarse network, petiole 4-6 mm long, 

strongly appressed pubescent, articulated at about 

the middle, the lower half persistent after the 

leaflet has fallen; flowers slightly fragrant, 1-7 in 

short terminal racemes, lower pedicels occasionally 

dichasioid-ramified, pedicels 1.5-2 cm long, puberulent, patent to ascending; calyx tube campanulate, 

to 3 mm long, lobes 6, filiform-subulate, sparsely 

puberulent, about 1 to 1.5 cm long, patent to 

ascending, straight; corolla salverform, white 

within, reddish purple without, tube 15-20 mm 

long, 1-1.5 mm thick, almost imperceptibly dilated 

in upper third, lobes 9-1 1 not or scarcely contorted 

in bud, buds sharply pointed, lobes about equaling 

tube, linear lanceolate, acute to acuminate, stamens 

and style included in corolla tube, stigma exserted; 

fruit unavailable. 

A pantropically distributed cultivated species 

native to India. Cultivated in Tahiti where it is 

called jasmin-&toile. 

SPECIMENS 

Decker 1466 

5 m, Sachet 

SEEN.-uahuka I.: Vaipae’e, cultivated, 1-10 m, 

(US, P). Hivaoa I.: Atuona, planted in garden, 

1286 (US). 

Jasminum multiflorum (Burman f.) Andrews 

Jasminurn rnultiflorurn (Burman f.) Andrews, Bot. Reposit., 

Nyctanthes multiflora Burman f., F1. Indica, 5, t. 3, f. 1, 1768. 

8:t.496, 1807. 

Shrub, tending to be semiscandent, stems, petioles, under sides of lea€-nerves, and inflorescences 

densely pilose to tomentose, branches strongly divergent to somewhat ascending, terete, leaves unifoliolate, opposite, very broadly ovate to very 

broadly oblong, up to 5 (-7) X 4.5 (-5) cm, thinly 

pilose above and beneath, densely so on nerves 

beneath, main veins 3 or 4 on a side, apex acute to 

acuminate, rarely obtuse, base somewhat cordate, 

petiole 5-10 mm, straight to curved, inflorescences 

congested to subcapitate, terminal on lateral 

branchlets, densely pilose, 10-15 or more flowered, 

flowers blooming successively, fragrant, white, calyx 

densely pilose, calyx tube narrowly campanulate, 

about 2 mm long, lobes 6-7, subulate, pilose, 5-8 

mm long, erect or strongly ascending, corolla 

salverform, tube 12-17 mm long, 1 mm thick at 

base, dilated upward to 2 mm, limb ovoid-fusiform, 

pointed in bud, lobes 8, ovate-elliptic, acute, 12-14 

X 3-4 mm, patent; not seen fruiting. 

Pantropical cultivated species said to be native 

to India (or Borneo?). 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Hivaoa 1.: central Puamau, 100-200 ft 

[30-70 m], local, Decker 556 (US, P). Atuona, cultivated in 

garden, Sachet 1276 (US, P). 

Jasminum sambac (L.) Aiton 

Jasminum sambac (L.) Aiton, Hort. Kew. 1:8, 1789.-F. 

Nyctanthes samhac L., Sp. Pl., 6, 1753. 

Brown, Flora, 225, 1935. 

Scandent shrub, stems, petioles and inflorescences sparsely to moderately woolly-appressed 

pilosulose, leaves unifoliolate, opposite to subopposite, larger ones (distally on branchlets) broadly 

elliptic, up to 9 X 5.5 cm, usually smaller, acute, 

or obtuse, mucronate at apex, obtuse to rounded 

at base, smaller ones tending to be very broadly 

ovate, subcordate or cordate at base; main veins 

4 or 5 on a side, pinnate, no tendency for lower 
NUhlBER 23 17 

pair to be stronger, opposite or somewhat alternate, petiole 2-5 mm, curved; flowers very fragrant, 

in racemes of 5 or in triads, terminal on short 

branchlets, bracts filiform, to about 8-9 mm, pedicels to 1 cm, calyx tube campanulate, about 2.5 

mm long, 3 mm wide, lobes 9-10, subulate pilose, 

about 8 mm long, usually somewhat curved, corolla 

salverform, cream-white turning pink after falling, 

tube 10-13 mm long, 1.5 mm thick at base, very 

gradually dilated upward, limb in bud subglobose 

or broadly ovoid, rounded distally, lobes 6-9, 

usually 8, more in double-flowered forms, 12-13 X 

7-10 mm, obtuse to usually rounded at apex. 

Pantropical cultivated species, original home uncertain; not seen fruiting. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Nukuhiva I.: Taiohae, low elevation, 

flowers white, very fragrant, introduced, not common, Brown 

729 (BISH). 

Hivaoa I.: Atuona, near sea level, vine, cultivated, PES 

(M G A) 303 (BISH, LeB, fragments). 

ETHNOBOTANY.-F~OWerS still used for crowns, 

“pitate.” 

LOGANIACEAE 

Habit various, latex none; leaves simple, opposite, joined at base by transverse ridges or interpetiolar stipules; inflorescences basically cymose, 

sometimes circinnate, reduced to fascicles, or elaborated into cymose panicles or thyrses; flowers 4-5 

merous, calyx united at base or part-way up, corolla 

gamopetalous, lobes valvate or imbricate, stamens 

alternate with corolla lobes, attached in tube or 

throat, anthers I-2-celled, longitudinally dehiscent, 

ovary usually superior, 2-loculed, ovules numerous, 

style 1 or 2 with a common stigma; fruit capsular 

or fleshy, usually septicidal, seeds usually many, 

rarely reduced to one. 

A medium-sized mostly tropical family, seeming 

ly very unnatural in its usual circumscription; as 

treated here somewhat reduced by removal of 

Fagraea to Gentianaceae. Few indigenous genera 

in oceanic Pacific islands. 

Geniostoma J. R. & G. Forster 

Geniostoma J. R. & G. Forster, Char. Gen. 12, 1775; 23, 1776. 

Shrubs or small trees; leaves penninerved, stipules 

thin, interpetiolar, forming a collar; flowers in 

small axillary cymes or thyrses, 5-merous, sepals 

united below, with 5 lobes, corolla tubular or 

salver-form, lobes tending to be recurved, stamens 

inserted in throat, filaments very short, style rather 

short, stigma capitate, placentas fleshy, accrescent; 

fruit a septicidal capsule, separating into 2 halves 

exposing the mass of seeds embedded in the persistent red fleshy placenta, which dries into a hard 

mass. 

An Indo-Pacific genus of many species, often 

very ill-distinguished; one in the Marquesas. 

Geniostoma hallei Sachet & Fosberg 

Geniostoma hollei Sachet & Fosberg, Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 

Geniostoma rupestre sensu F. Brown, Flora, 227, 1935 [non 

21:13, 1975. 

J. R. & G. Forster, Char. Gen., 12, 1775; 24, 17761. 

Shrub to 3 m tall, glabrous, nodes enlarged, 

internodes irregular in length, 4-20 (-25) mm long; 

leaves ovate to broadly elliptic, up to 7 X 3.5 (4) 

cm, acute or rarely somewhat acuminate and mucronulate at apex, broadly acute at base, venation 

faint above, not prominent beneath, main veins 

(7-)8-9(-10) on a side, not in regular pairs, bending slightly upward, becoming fainter and anastamosing near margin, network obscure, blade 

narrowed to a petiole 4-5 mm long, stipular collar 

truncate, 1.2-1.5 mm long very early rupturing 

down the interpetiolar sides; inflorescence a compound dichasium about 1-1.5 cm long, rather congested, twice trichotomous on a very short peduncle 

(very rarely, on the longest inflorescences, the central axis with an extra internode and the lateral 

dichasia each with a single extra outer pedicel from 

near base), a pair of ovate acuminate scale-like 

bracts at each ramification, the lowest connate, 

margins of bracts ciliolate, pedicels 24 (-5) mm 

long, with or without 1-3 scattered scale-like ovatetriangular ciliolate bracteoles; flowers white, foetid; 

calyx 2 mm long, lobed about v2 way, lobes triangular acuminate, ciliolate, slightly imbricate at 

base, corolla about 3 mm long, tube 2 mm, throat 

densely bearded, lobes suborbicular, imbricate in 

bud, obtuse, spreading at maturity, inner basal 

surface crinkly pilose, margins strongly ciliate, 

edges papillate without, stamens just over 1 mm 

long, anthers broadly ovate or triangular to broadly 

oblong, slightly longer than broad, about 0.8 X 0.6 

mm, apex rounded, connective conspicuous, fila- 
18 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

ments very short, ovary broadly ovoid, stigma capitate, fleshy, sessile, constricted vertically and very 

slightly bilobed; fruit (immature) cylindric-fusiform, 

8 X 3 mm, slightly beaked, beak tipped by shrunken 

stigma. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Tahuata I.: “Region du sornmet du 

Tahuata,” 17 Mar. 1973, F. Halle 2170 (US, holotype, P, 

MPU, isotypes). 

Very closely allied to G. astylum Gray of Tahiti, 

differing in the smaller less oblong leaves, much 

smaller, more contracted inflorescences, which are 

not or scarcely thyrsoid, in the more usual presence 

of bracteoles on the pedicels, in the somewhat 

acuminate much more ciliate calyx lobes, and in 

the corolla more densely bearded within. 

Apparently very rare, one plant only seen by 

collector. A sterile specimen collected on Hivaoa, 

Feani, at 700 m, F. Brown 2096 (BISH), may be 

the same. 

GENTIANACEAE 

Herbs, shrubs, or trees, usually smooth, leaves 

opposite, simple; flowers 4- or usually 5-merous, 

calyx gamosepalous, lobed; corolla gamopetalous, 

lobes variously imbricated or plicate and usually 

contorted in bud; stamens 5, inserted on the corolla 

tube alternating with the lobes, anthers 2-loculed; 

pistil 1, ovary superior, 1 or 2 celled with parietal 

or axile placentation, ovules and seeds many. 

Almost cosmopolitan, with only herbaceous members in temperate zones, herbs, shrubs, and trees 

in the tropics. One genus in the Marquesas (which 

is usually put in the Loganiaceae). 

Fagraea Thunberg 

Fagraea Thunberg, K. Vetensk. Acad. Nya Handl. (Stockholm), 3:132, 1782. 

Shrubs and trees with leathery leaves, stipules 

paired, intrapetiolar, connate with petiole at base, 

flowers in cymes, very fragrant, corollas campanulate to tubular salverform; fruit a many-seeded 

berry. 

An Indo-Pacific genus, usually placed in the 

Loganiaceae, a family that seems artificial and better clarified by removing such extraneous elements 

as Fagraea. 

Fagraea berteriana Gray ex Bentham 

Fagraea berteriana Gray ex Bentham, Journ. Linn. SOC. Bot., 

1:98, 1857.-Drake, Ill., 238, 1892; Flore, 139, 1892.-F. 

Brorvn, Flora, 228, 1935. 

Tree, cymes few flowered (buds up to at least 

16), corolla white, turning creamy yellow, waxy, 

salverform, with 5 rounded to slightly obovate 

spreading to recurved lobes; anthers linear, basally 

inserted below summit of throat; ovary superior, 

cylindric, style thick-filiform, stigma bifid into two 

broad flat lobes; fruit orange to red, 3.5-5.5 cm 

long with juicy pulp and seeds embedded in it. 

A widespread polymorphic species, with many 

varieties, extending from Queensland and New 

Guinea east to the Marquesas and north to Micronesia, carried around by Polynesians as an ornamental, so that its original range in Polynesia is 

very difficult to determine. Originally described 

from Tahiti. One variety known from the Marquesas differs from the Tahitian var. berteriana in 

the shorter corolla tube, 4-6 cm rather than 6.5-8 

cm, and from another, undescribed Tahitian variety 

in its included rather than exserted stigma. 

Fagraea berteriana var. marquisemis Fosberg & 

Sachet 

Fagraea berteriana var. marquisensis Fosberg & Sachet, PhyCarissa grandis sensu Jardin, Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg,

Fagraea berteriana sensu F. Brown, Flora, 228, 1935 [pro 

tologia, 28 (5):471-472, 1974. 

5:314, 1857. 

parte]. 

Glabrous tree, leaves obovate, blades up to 20 X 

10 cm, rounded at apex with a slight blunt acumen, base cuneate, texture coriaceous, venation 

obscure, veins 10-12 on a side, petiole 1.2-4 cm 

long, free portion of intrapetiolar stipules 1.5-2 

mm long, thick, blunt; inflorescence with up to 

15 (-16) flowers; calyx lobes 5, broadly ovate to 

semicircular, obtuse to subtruncate, 5-8 mm long, 

margins scarious, corolla tube 4.3-6 cm long, somewhat dilated above into a slightly broader throat 

1.5 cm long, the 2 cm below this transversally 

wrinkled within, lobes (4-)5 about 2 X 1.3 cm, 

rounded to slightly obovate, spreading to recurved, 

waxy, very fragrant, white turning yellowish with 

age, stamens inserted at base of throat, filaments 1 

cm long, anthers 1 cm long, broadly linear; pistil 
NUMBER 23 19 

included in corolla tube, ovary cylindric, 1 cm 

long, style thick-filiform, about 2.5 cm long, stigma 

5 mm long, bifid into 2 somewhat spreading flat 

obovate lobes, rounded at apex; fruit a glossy 

orange to red berry, globose to subglobose or very 

broadly elliptic, 3.5-4.5 X 2.5-4.0 cm, not umbonate, not or only slightly beaked. 

(P). 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-MarqUeSaS Islands: Herbier S.F.I.M. I35 

Nukuhiva I.: Barclay s.n. (K); Barclay 3217 (BM); Quayle 

1581 (BISH); Taiohae, 500 m, Brown 393 (BISH); Hakaui, 

1000 m, Brown 467 (BISH); Taiohae Valley, 150 m, PES 

(M t A) 597 (BISH, NY as AbM); Tovii, F. Halle 2062 (US). 

Uapou I.: Poumaka, Haka Hetau Valley, PES (A & M) 

Hivaoa I.: Puamau village, Decker 918 (US, type); Atuona, 

Brown 861 (BISH); Atuona, in small ravine at top of vilUP-I (NY, BISH, A). 

lage, Sachet 1310 (US, P); PES (M b. A) 435 (BISH, NY as 

AbM, LeB); east of airstrip, F. Halle 2130 (US). 

ETHNOBOTANY.-The Marquesans valued all flow 

ers and fragrant plants, and Fagraea was one of 

their most important ones. The Marquesan name 

for this species is pua, which means flower. They 

were made into crowns and garlands, used to perfume coconut oil to rub over the body and in the 

hair. The red fruit called Kaupe served in funeral 

rites. There were also some medicinal uses of the 

bark and other parts of the tree. 

APOCYNACEAE 

Trees, shrubs, vines, and herbs usually lactiferous; leaves opposite or whorled, rarely alternate, 

Key to the Marquesan Species of Apocynaceae 

1. Leaves mostly congested at tips of rather thick branches or alternate. .................... 2 

2. Leaves linear, flowers yellow or orange, campanulate, fruit a drupe Thevefio peruviana 

2. Leaves broader, flowers not usually yellow or orange, fruit various. .................. 3 

3. Leaves pale beneath, with prominent veins, inflorescence bracts inconspicuous, corolla 

3. Leaves green beneath, veins not conspicuous, inflorescence bracts prominent, corolla 

salverform, fruit a drupe ................................................... Cerbera manghos 

1. Leaves in well-separated pairs or whorls ............................................................. 4 

4. Leaves opposite ...................................................................................................... 5 

5. Herbs, or slightly suffrutescent, less than 1 m tall, flowers showy, salverform ................. 

......................................................................................................... Catharanthus roseus 

5. Shrubs or trees ........................................................................................................ 6 

6. Leaves ovate to broadly elliptic, whitish and venulose beneath, flowers small, follicles elongate-linear ...................................................................... Alstonia marquisensis 

6. Leaves elliptic, not strongly veined, green beneath, flowers showy, 2 cm across or 

wider; fruit (rarely developed) broader than linear.. .... Tobernaemontana divaruatn 

4. Leaves whorled ....................................................................................................................... 7 

7. Leaves lance-linear or linear oblong, leathery, flowers showy, with scales in throat ... 8 

8. Flowers single nearly odorless .......................................................... Nerium olermder 

8. Flowers double, fragrant ........................................ Nerium oleander var. indicum 

7. Leaves broader ............................................................................................................. 9 

9. Plants scandent or twining ..................................................................... 10 

10. Leaves less than 5 cm long, obtuse, flowers less than 5 mm across, fruit of one 

or more smooth drupes ................................................................... Alyxia stellata 

10. Leaves 8-10 cm or more long; acuminate, flowers 5-10 cm across, fruit a spiny 

capsule .............................................................................. Allaman& hendersonii 

9. Trees or shrubs, not scandent; fruits paired drupes ..................................... ..I1 

11. Leaves elliptic or oblong-elliptic, endocarps smooth or with large holes, dorsiventrally compressed ................................................................................. 12 

12. Veins visible on both leaf surfaces.. .................... Ochrosia nukuhivensis 

12. Veins obscure below, acuminate, buds pointed .......... Ochrosia fatuhivenris 

11. Leaves broadly obovate-oval, or obovate-cuneate rounded or obtuse at apex, 

endocarps spiny, terete ...................................................................... 13 

13. Leaves cuneate, drupes red, endocarp about 4 cm long. Neiosperma brownii 

13. Leaves broadly obovate, not very cuneate, drupes yellow, endocarps 5 cm or 

more long [not definitely known from the Marquesas] .............. 

funnel-shaped, fruit a pair of follicles (seldom seen) ................ Plumeria rubra 

...................................................... Neiosperma oppositifolin 
20 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

simple, entire, exstipulate; flowers in cymes usually 

bracteate or solitary in leaf axils, calyx of usually 

5 free sepals or at least deeply lobed; corolla gamopetalous, various in form, lobes 5 usually imbricate 

and contorted in bud; stamens inserted at top of 

corolla tube alternate with lobes, sessile or nearly 

so, connivent in a close ring around the stigma, 

2-celled, pollen usually granular; pistil one but 

composed of two, rarely 3-5, separate carpels united 

at apex by a single style with a thickened variously 

shaped stigma (or clavuncle), ovary surrounded at 

base by a varied arrangement of glands or nectaries, each ovary with a single cell and usually 

several to many ovules; fruit usually a pair of dry 

or fleshy follicles or rarely drupes or berries, sometimes one by abortion, or rarely a capsule; seeds 

few to many, often comose or alate. 

A fairly large, mostly tropical family, not very 

well represented in the indigenous Marquesan 

flora, but with a number of common tropical ornamental species, some of them in Marquesan gardens. There are 6 native species, 4 of them endemic, 

the rest widely distributed in the Pacific Islands. 

Allumanda L. 

Allamanda L., Mant. Pl., 2:146, 1771. 

Vine-like or shrubby, with whorled elliptic leaves, 

terminal cymes of showy campanulate-salverform 

Bowers; calyx without glands, asymmetric; fruit a 

unilocular spiny capsule; seeds flat, winged or 

t hick-margined. 

An American genus with a number of species 

cultivated as ornamentals and widely planted in 

tropical countries. One species known to be grown 

in the Marquesas. 

Allamanda hendersonii Bull ex Dombrain 

Allamanda hendersonii Bull ex Dombrain, Floral Mag., 5, t. 

Allamanda cathartica var. hendersonii (Bull ex Dombrain) 

Allamanda cathartica sensu F. Brown, Flora, 229, 1935 [non 

268, 1866. 

Nicholson, Dict. 4:488, 1888. 

L., Mant. PI. 2:214, 17711. 

Glabrous scrambling climber, leaves elliptic, 

acuminate, 8 cm or more long, often in fours, 

corolla bright yellow, up to 10 cm across, tube and 

throat shorter than diameter of limb, lobes rounded; fruit very seldom seen. 

One of the most popular and showy tropical 

ornamentals, often considered a variety of the 

smaller-flowered, more shrubby A. cathartica L., 

which has the leaves notably hairy beneath. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-NUkUhiva I.: Taiohae village, Decker 

2149 (US); Brown 747 (BISH, not seen) appears to be this 

species also, from his description. 

Uahuka I.: Vaipae'e village, Decker 1676 (US). 

Hivaoa I.: Atuona, garden, PES (M 6. A) 407 (BISH), 

sterile; in garden, near sea level, PES Ex 407 (BISH); seen 

in gardens, Sachet in 1963. 

Other species of Allamandu are commonly cultivated in Tahiti and may be expected in the 

Marquesas. 

Alstonia R. Brown 

Alstonia R. Brown, Mem. Wern. SOC. 1:75, 1810 [preprint, 

nom. cons.]. 

Trees or large shrubs with opposite leaves, 

cymose panicles of small shortly tubular flowers, 

and paired, elongate, linear follicles; seeds with an 

appendage at each end. An Indo-Pacific genus 

including a number of important timber trees, two 

very closely related species in eastern Polynesia. 

Alstonia marquisensis Grant 

Alstonia marquisensis Grant, in Fosberg and Sachet, MicroAlstonia costata sensu F. Brown, Flora, 233, 1935 [non (Fornesia 8:46, 1972. 

ster) R. Brown, 18101. 

Leaves broad, elliptic or oval, obtuse to acute, 

9-13 X 3.5-7.5 cm, secondary veins 13-20 on a 

side, strong, connected at margin by a marginal 

vein that arches between adjacent secondary veins, 

glabrous or almost so; petiole about 4 cm long; 

corolla white 11-13 mm long, with lobes to about 

6 mm long, obtuse to acute; style 2.5 mm long; 

follicles 19-29 cm long, 4-5 mm wide; seed 7-9 

mm long, proximal appendage frequently forked. 

This species is conspicuously variable in size and 

shape of leaves, size of cymes and length of follicles. It is perhaps too close to A. costata R. Brown 

of the Society and Cook Islands. A component of 

montane forest on high ridges on the larger islands. 

Nukuhiva I.: Western side, above Uea Valley, near Baie 

Marquisienne, 150-200 m, Decker 2046 (US, P, BISH) (leaves 

SPEClhfENS SEEN.-MarqUeSaS Islands: S.1. Henry 6 (P). 
NUMBER 23 21 

lance-elliptic, cymes full but loose): Tovi’i, Quayle I338 

(Bl SH) . 

Uahuka I.: s.1. Quayle 1753 (BISH), 1836 (BISH). 

Hivaoa I.: “Hauts plateaux,” Henry in 1919 (P); AtuonaFeani trail, 1200-1300 m, Sachet 6 Decker 1174 (US, BISH, 

P); Feani, 900 m, Brown 879 (BISH, type); “route de Hanamenu,” 600 m, Henry in 1922 (P); north side of Mt. Temetiu, PES (A & M) 146 (UC, BISH as MbA) (a small leafed 

form); Atuona Valley, 1100 m, PES Ex 140 (BISH); Teihuonui, 3400 ft [1000-1200 m], PES (A & M) 498 (NY). 

Alyxia Banks ex R. Brown 

Alyxia Banks ex R. Brown, Prodr. 469, 1810 [nom. cons.]. 

Cynopogon J. R. & G. Forster, Char. Gen. 18, 1775; 35, t.18, 

1776. 

Twining vines or shrubs, leaves opposite or 

whorled, usually rather small, flowers in small axillary pedunculate cymes, corollas small, salverform, 

fruit a pair of subglobose carpels, each with a 

single stone or with two or more moniliformly 

arranged stones, the whole often reduced by abortion to one drupe or an end-to-end pair of drupes. 

An important Indo-Pacific genus, centered in 

Malesia and New Caledonia, with at least one 

representative in almost every high island in Polynesia and Micronesia. 

Alyxia stellata (J. R. & G. Forster) Roemer & 

Schultes 

Alyxia stellata (J. R. & G. Forster) Roemer & Schultes, Syst. 

Gynopogon stellaturn J. R. & G. Forster, Char. Gen., 18, 1775; 

Veg. 4:439, 1819. 

36, 1776.-Forster f., Prodr. 19, 1786. 

Alyxia stellata, described from the Society Islands 

and Tonga, extends in various forms from at least 

as far west as New Caledonia to the Marquesas and 

Henderson Island. It is supposedly distinguished 

from A. scandens (also from Polynesia but not 

known from the Marquesas) by ternate vs. opposite 

leaves, but these occur too often on the same plant. 

It seems to be more reliably distinguished from 

A. scandens by considerably smaller flowers. 

F. Brown (1935:230-231) placed all Marquesan 

material in his f. marquesensis, while admitting its 

variability. Three varieties are now recognized from 

the Marquesas. 

Key to the Marquesan Varieties of Alyxia stelluta 

var. deckcri 

2 

1. Leaves ovate, subcordate to cordate at base 

1. Leaves broadly elliptic to lanceolate, not at all cordate but obtuse to acute at base 

2. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate 

2. Leaves broadly elliptic 

Alyxiu stelluta var. deckeri Fosberg & Sachet 

Alyxia stellata var. deckeri Fosberg & Sachet, Micronesica, 

10:254, 1974. 

Leaves broadly ovate, subcordate to cordate, 

cymes 4 cm long, flowers about 6 mm long, fruit 

segments subglobose, 10 X 12 mm, black. 

Known only from high elevations of Hiva’oa, in 

cloud forest. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-HiVaOa I.: Atuona-Feani Trail, crest of 

ridge, 1200-1300 m, Sachet dr Decker 1151 (US, type, P, Fo, 

BISH, NY, K). 

Alyxia stelluta var. fatuhivensis Fosberg & Sachet 

Alyxia stellata var. fatuhivensis Fosberg & Sachet, Micronesica, 10:254, 1974. 

var. fatuhivensis 

var. marquesetasis 

Alyxia stellata f. marquesensis F. Brown, Flora, 230, 1935 

[pro parte]. 

Leaves elliptic lanceolate, acuminate at apex, 

Known only from Fatuiva. 

attenuate at base, up to 6 X 1.8 cm. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-FatUiVa I.: 600 m, Brown 932 (BISH). 

Alyxia stellata var. marquesensis (F. Brown) 

Fosberg & Sachet 

Alyxia stellata var. marquesensis (F. Brown) Fosberg & Sachet, Micronesica, 10:253, 1974. 

Alyxia stellata f. marquesensis F. Brown, Flora, 230, 1935 

[pro parte]. 

Shrubby vine; leaves in whorls of 3, coriaceous, 

broadly elliptic, venation obscure to visible, apex 
22 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

somewhat acuminate but with tips rounded, bases 

rounded to acute, margins closely revolute; cymes 

about 1 cm long (to 2-2.5 cm in old fruiting specimens) 3-5 flowered; sepals triangular-ovate, puberulent, orange; corolla greenish yellow; drupes subglobose, about 1 cm long, black. 

Most of the Marquesan material is rather uniformly like the above description. Found in forest 

from dry areas to cloud forest on wet crests. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Nukuhiva I.: s.1. Quayle 1323 (BISH), 

200-1000 m, Brown 5624 (BISH). Ooumu Mt., 3500 ft [1150- 

1250 m] PES (M 6. A) 583 (BISH, NY as AhM, P). Spur of 

summit ridge, 1000 m, about 5 krn SW of Tapuaooa shelter, 

Gillett 2I95 (BISH, US); Tovii, Halle 2090 (US). 

Uahuka I.: s.1. Quayle 1721 (BISH). 

Hivaoa I.: Feani, 1200-1300 m, Sachet & Decker 1151 (US). 

Vaiee Tanaeka Valley, 250 m, PES (M G A) 428 (NY, LeB); 

Hanahoo, PES (M 6. A) 362 (BISH, UC, LeB) (leaves to 8 

cm long). 

Mohotani I.: Momoei, 300 m, PES (M 6. A) 538 (BISH, NY 

as AdrM, LeB). 

ETHNOB0TANY.-species of Alyxia were as important in the Marquesas to make fragrant garlands 

(hei) as in Tahiti and Hawaii. The Marquesan 

name is meie (meie papa in Fatuiva). F. Brown 

mentions also mehe but this is probably a different 

plant, possibly Morindu umbellata. Jardin (1857: 

297, 314) lists an Alyxia but, from the name (Katea) 

cited, this is more likely a species of Wikstroemia. 

Catharanthus G. Don 

Catharanthus G. Don, Gen. Hist. Dichl. PI., 4:95, 1838. 

Vincu L., Gen. Pl., ed. 5, 98, 1754 [=1753] [pro parte]. 

Lochnera Reichenbach, Consp., 134, 1828. 

Herbs with opposite thin leaves, terminal corymbiform cymes of flowers, corollas salverform, fruit 

of two narrowly linear follicles becoming axillary 

as they mature. 

A small genus native to South Asia and Madagascar, formerly considered a part of Yinca L., from 

which it differs in habit, position of inflorescence, 

and form of corolla. One species has become pantropical in cultivation and readily establishes itself 

in weedy disturbed places. 

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don 

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don, Gen. Hist. Dichl. Pl., 4:95, 

1838. 

Vinca rosea L., Syst., ed. 10, 944, 1759.-F. Brown, Flora, 234, 

Lochnera rosea (L.) Reichenbach, Consp. 134, 1828 . 1935. 

Erect herb, up to 0.5 m tall, leaves thin, oblong, 

obtuse, flowers showy, rose, white, or white with a 

red eye. 

One of the most ubiquitous tropical plants, 

reputed to have important medical properties. Said 

to be originally from Madagascar. All three color 

forms planted in gardens in the Marquesas and 

frequently naturalized. 

(P). 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-MarqUeSaS IsIands: Herbier S.F.I.M. 170 

Nukuhiva I.: Savntier 735 (P). 

Uahuka I.: Vaipae’e village, Decker 1662 (US); Hane Village, 10 m. Decker 1951 (US). 

Uapou I.: Hoho’i Valley, everywhere, mauve or white, 

Lavondes 14 (US); west flank of Hakahetau, only one seen, 

50-250 m. Decker 2258 (US). 

Hivaoa I.: Weedy roadside near beach at Atuona, 1-2 m, 

escaped from cultivation, Sachet 1205 (US, P, BISH, UH); 

Atuona, escaped from cultivation, Decker 399 (US, BISH, 

UC, P): among rocks of seashore (obviously escaped from 

cultivation), PES (M G A) I22 (pink), 116 (white, red eye) 

(both BISK, LeB); PES Ex 116 (BISH); Puamau, house yard, 

100-200 ft [30-70 m], Decker 538 (US); dry slopes between 

Nahoe and Eiaone, 100-300 ft [SO-100 m], Decker 617 (BISH, 

US); Hanamenu, near marsh back of beach, Decker 1330 

(US, Fo). 

LOCAL NAMES.-f%l-eVUi (borrowing from the 

French, pemenche) (Lavondes 24), tihapai (PES 

122). English: Madagascar periwinkle. 

Cerbera L. 

Cerbera L., Gen. Pl., ed. 5, 98, 1754 [=1753]. 

Shrubs or small trees, leaves crowded at ends of 

branches, spirally arranged; cymes terminal, frequently with conspicuous pale green bracts; corollas salverform, throat narrow or somewhat dilated; 

fruit a pair of ovoid drupes, stones covered with 

spine-like fibers. 

An Indo-Pacific genus, one species extending to 

Polynesia. 

Cerbera manghm L. 

Cerbera manghas L., Sp. P1, 1:208, 1753.-Jardin, Mem. SOC.

Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, 5:297, 314,1857.-Jouan, Mem. SOC. Sci. 

Nat. Cherbourg, 11: 114, 1865.-F. Brown, Flora, 236, 1935. 

Cerbera odolfa [sic] sensu Drake, 111. 233, 1892; Flore, 123- 
NUMBER 28 23 

124, 1892 [non C. odollam, Gaertner, Fruct., 2:193, t. 124, 

17911. 

Small tree, leaves elliptic, tending to be somewhat acuminate, bright, glossy green; inflorescence 

a corymbiform cyme with rather showy bracts, 

calyx conspicuous, corollas salverform, about 2.5 

cm or more across, white with red “eye;” fruit 

usually reduced to one drupe, this large, oval, pendent on a cord-like peduncle and pedicel, dull 

purplish when ripe, obtuse or rounded to somewhat pointed at apex. 

A strand plant, but extending onto higher 

ground, distributed from Indonesia to southeastern 

Polynesia, north to the Carolines. Often confused 

with Cerbera odollam, from farther west, in Malaysia and South Asia. The latter differs in having 

a shorter corolla with yellow eye and a swelling 

at the middle of the tube. 

SrEabims SEEN.-Marquesas Islands: “/re?s commun,” Herbier S.F.I.M. 179 (P); Dupelit Thottars 54 (P, 3 sheets, US), 

Nukuhiva I.: Hombron in 1841 (P); LeBatard 23 (P, 2 

sheets); foothills of N. mt., 2500 ft [600-700 m], Quayle 1304 

(BISH, 2 sheets): on ridge facing mts., 1200 ft [300-400 m], 

Quayle 1326 (BISH, 2 sheets); s.I., 1000 m, Brown 428 (BISH); 

800 m, Brown 402 (BISH); 1 mi [2 km] from junction of 

Tovii trail and Taiohae trail, east part of plateau, Decker 

200 (BISH, US, UC, P); Taiohae-Tapuaooa trail, 650 m, 

Gillett 2204 (US). 

12 (P). 

Uahuka I.: Quayle 1707 (BISH). 

Uapou I.: Quayle 1069 (BISH); 1127 (BISH); Hoho’i Valley, Lavondes 19 (US); Pou Maka, Halle 2039 (US). 

Hivaoa 1.: above Atuona, 500 m, PES Ex 3 (BISH); Atuona, 

above village, Sachet 1328 (US, P, BISH); Pouau, native forest, 500 m, PES 3 (LeB, fragments); between Nahoe and 

Eiaone, 100-300 ft [30-100 m], Decker 611 (US); above Hanamenu, ridge above Anatuakina cave, 1000-2000 ft [300-600 

m] Decker 1247 (US, Fo). 

Tahuata I.: Halle 2158 (US). 

ETHNOB0TANY.-The Marquesan name is eva. 

The fruit is very poisonous and the seed was 

formerly used to commit suicide or dispatch enemies. The latex (epau) is cooked and used as bird 

lime (Lavondds 29), and other parts of the plant 

have medicinal uses. 

Neiosperma Rafinesque 

Neiosperma Rafinesque, Sylva Tellur. 162, 1838. 

Ochrosia Auct. [pro parte, non Jussieu, Gen. PI., 144, 17891. 

Trees or large shrubs with whorled or opposite 

leaves, cymes terminal, becoming axillary, of rather 

inconspicuous flowers; corollas salverform, unappendaged; fruit of two oval terete drupes with 

stones covered by spine-like fibers embedded in 

thin flesh; seeds flat, imbricate. 

A small genus, Indo-Pacific in distribution, by 

many authors included in Ochrosia Jussieu. 

Neiosperma broionii Fosberg & Sachet 

Neiospertna brownii Fosberg & Sachet, Micronesica, 8:49, 

Ochrosia pamiflora sensu F. Brown, Flora, 160, 1935 [pro 

1972. 

parte including pl. SB]. 

Glabrous tree 10 m tall; leaves opposite and in 

whorls of three, obovate-cuneate, obtuse, 5.5 X 14.5 

cm, margins tightly revolute, veins prominent beneath, visible above, 17 pairs, 6-10 mm apart, with 

a weaker vein and an inconspicuous network 

between each two, petiole to 3 cm long; young 

cymes in axils of terminal whorl of leaves, 7 cm 

long, loosely 3 times trichotomous, scale-like bracts 

very reduced; mature flowers unavailable; fruits 

terete, 22-24 mm thick, possibly 4 cm long, flesh 

red, endocarp strongly fibrous-spinulose. 

Known only from the type-specimen. 

SPECIhlEN SEEN.-Nukuhiva I.: 900 m, Brown 541 (BISH, 

tYPe). 

Neiosperma oppositifolia (Lamarck) Fosberg & 

Sachet 

Neiosperrna oppositifolia (Lamarck) Fosberg & Sachet, MicroCerbera oppositifolia, Lamarck, Encycl. Meth., 1:62, 1783. 

Ochrosia oppositifolia (Lamarck) K. Schumann, in Engler and 

nesica 8:48, 1972. 

Prantl, Nat. Pfl., 4(2):156, 1895. 

A sparsely branched umbrella-shaped tree, leaves 

large, obovate with rounded or obtuse apices, 

cymes paniculate open: corolla tube swollen near 

top, lobes white, narrow; fruit about 7 cm long, 

3 cm thick, abruptly acuminate, yellow, or 

“rousseatre” according to Lamarck, when ripe. 

Not definitely known from the Marquesas, but 

likely to occur in coastal areas. F. Brown’s (1935: 

232) report of Ochrosia parvipora was based on a 

mixture of material of Neiosperma brownii, 

Ochrosia fatuhivensis, and 0. nukuhivensis. 
24 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

Nerium L. 

Nerium L., Gen. PI., ed. 5, 99, 1754[=1753]. 

Shrubs or small trees with milky sap: leaves 

whorled, linear-lanceolate, coriaceous; cymes terminal, corymbiform; sepals with glands inside at 

base; corolla with scales in throat, anthers appendaged at base and apex: fruit a pair of closely 

coherent linear follicles, seeds comose. 

Native from the Mediterranean to South Asia, 

widely planted as ornamentals; violently poisonous 

when eaten, and even capable of producing a rash 

on contact. 

Nerium oleander L. 

Nerium oleander L., Sp. PI., 209, 1753.-Jouan, Mem. Soc.

Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, 11:114, 1865. 

Large bushy shrubs; leaves in whorls of 3 or 4, 

well separated on sparsely branched stems; flowers 

showy, in cymes, corolla with toothed or somewhat 

lacerate appendages in throat; follicles terete, 

drooping, 20 or more cm long; seeds with a tuft of 

hairs. 

Native from the Mediterranean region to the 

Indus ValIey, a component of broad-sclerophyll 

vegetation; cultivated in most warm countries. Two 

common cultivated varieties, apparently indistinguishable when sterile, proliferated into series of 

horticultural selections of cultivars, differing in 

color and number of corolla segments. Jouan saw 

several magnificent plants in Nukuhiva (Taiohae) 

around 1856. It is called rorie, a borrowing from 

the French laurier rose. 

Nerium oleander L. var. oleander 

Flowers essentially odorless, the corolla salverform, with short tube and lacerate scales in throat, 

white to pink or rarely red. 

ft [30-70 m], Decker 571 (US) (white). 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Hivaoa I.: Puarnau, house yard, 100-200 

Nerium oleander var. indicum (Miller) Degener 81 

Greenwell 

Nerium oleander var. indicum (Miller) Degener & Greenwell, Flora Hawaiiensis, 305; N.0.i. 7,/25/’52. 

Nerium indicum Miller, Gard. Dict., ed. 8, 1768. 

Nerium odorum Aiton, Hort. Kew. 1:297, 1789.-F. Brown, 

Flora 235, 1935. 

Flowers very fragrant, corollas usually double, 

the segments somewhat mucronate, usually a rich 

rose color, rarely white. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Nukuhiva I.: s.l., Brown 950 (BISH) possibly this, but indeterminable; Taiohae village, bay front, 

Decker 2247 (US) (flower rose). 

Uahuka I.: Vaipae’e village, school yard, Decker 1691 ‘(US) 

(corolla rose). 

Ochrosia Jussieu 

Ochrosia Jussieu, Gen. PI., 144, 1789. 

Shrubs and small trees, lactiferous; leaves whorled: 

cymes axillary or apparently terminal, several times 

dichotomous or trichotomous, branches may become elongate, zig-zag; corolla salverform, unappendaged, in bud slightly to strongly contorted: fruit 

of 2 divergent drupes, at least stones dorsiventrally 

compressed, surface smooth or with large cavities. 

A large Indo-Pacific genus, mainly insular, extending from the Mascarenes to the Marquesas and 

Hawaii, with two endemic species in the Marquesas. 

Ochrosia fatuhivensis Fosberg & Sachet 

Ochrosia fatuhiuensis Fosberg & Sachet, Miaonesica, 8:48, 

Ochrosia pamiflora sensu F. Brown, Flora, 22, 1935 [pro 

1972. 

parte, non (Forster f.) G. Don, Gen. Hist. 4:99, 18381. 

Glabrous tree 10 m tall; leaves whorled, oblongelliptic, 3.5 X 7.5 cm, sharply acuminate, veins 

visible above, about 14 or 15 pairs, with weaker 

ones and network between; cymes terminal in 3’s 

and single in upper axils, 2-3 cm long, twice trichotomous, flowers crowded or glomerate; sepals imbricate, ovate, obtuse, about 2 mm long; corolla in 

unopened bud cylindric, pointed, strongly contorted to left. 

Possibly related to 0. cornpta K. Schumann of 

Hawaii. Known only from the type-specimen. 

type). 

SPECIMEN SEEN.-FatUiVa I.: Oia, 800 m, Brown 886 (BISH, 

Ochrosia nukuhivensis Fosberg & Sachet 

Ochrosia nukuhiuensis Fosberg PC Sachet, Micronesica 8:48, 

1972. 
NUMBER 23 25 

Ochrosia parvipora sensu F. Brown, Flora, 232, 1935 [pro 

parte, non (Forster f.) G. Don, Gen. Hist. 4:99, 18381. 

Glabrous tree; leaves in whorls of 3, blades 5 X 

15 cm, elliptic, tapering to both ends, veins visible 

on both surfaces, widely divergent, about 5 mm 

apart, with an anastomosing network between; 

petioles 3 cm long; young cymes to 2.5 cm long, 

loosely branched about 3 times; in bud only, sepals 

less than 1 mm high, very obtuse, wider than high, 

corolla in bud 7 mm long, tube 5 mm, lobes 

slightly twisted to left, fruit unavailable. 

Probably related to 0. tahitensis Lanessan. 

Known only from the type-specimen. 

SPECIMEN SEEN.-Nukuhiva I.: Mauu, Brown 432 (BISH, 

type). 

Plumeria L. 

Plumeria L., Gen. PI., ed. 5, 99, 1754 [=I7531 

Shrub or small semideciduous trees with leaves 

and cymes clustered at ends of very thick branches; 

cymes corymbiform, corollas showy, salverformfunnelform, without appendages; anthers obtuse; 

fruit a pair of large rather woody divaricately divergent follicles. 

An American genus, of which two species are 

among the commonest and showiest tropical ornamentals and are prized for their fragrant flowers. 

The less frequently cultivated Plumeria obtusa L., 

with dark green, leathery, obtuse leaves and white 

flowers, is found in Tahiti and may be expected in 

the Marquesas. 

Plumeria rubra L. 

Plumeria rubra L., Sp. PI., 209, 1753. 

Plumeria acutifolia Poiret, Encycl. Method. Suppl., 2667, 

Plumeria acuminafa Aiton f., Hort. Kew., ed. 2, 2:70, 1811.- 

1811. 

F. Brown, Flora, 130:234, 1935. 

Semideciduous small tree, with abundant white 

latex; leaves petiolate, elliptic, somewhat acuminate, pale beneath, with conspicuous veins, the 

secondary veins connected by a marginal vein that 

arches between them; flowers with oval spreading 

corolla lobes, very fragrant. 

The “Frangipani,” a pantropical ornamental 

with many color forms, from deep red through 

pink, yellow, to white. Planted in gardens and in 

graveyards throughout the Pacific Islands. 

SPECIMENS SEsN.-Nukuhiva I.: Low elevation, Brown 749 

(BISH); Taiohae, low elevation, Brown 766 (BISH). 

Uahuka I.: Vaipae’e Village. Decker 1678 (US) (flowers yellow and white, fragrant). 

Hivaoa I.: Atuona Valley, blaue, garden, 15 m PES (M & 

A) 451 (BISH) (flower white, yellow center). Atuona, seen in 

gardens and in graveyard on Gauguin’s tomb, Sachet in 

1963, flowers white and deep pink. 

ETHNOBOTANY.-F1owers used in garlands and 

crowns. Tipanie, a rendition of frangipani or frangipanier, is the name in Tahiti and the Marquesas. 

Tabernaemontana L. 

Tabernasmontana L., Gen. Pl., ed. 5, 100, 1754 [=1753]. 

Ervafamia (A. de Candolle) Stapf, in Dyer, F1. Trop. Afr., 

Tabernaemontana sect. Ervatamia A. de Candolle, Prodr. 

4(1):126, 1902. 

8:373. 1844. 

Shrubs, leaves opposite, flowers in open cymose 

panicles; calyx small, glandular within at base; 

corolla salverform, contorted to left in bud, unappendaged; ovary of 2 carpels, many ovules in a 

locule; style filiform; fruit of 2 follicles, dry or 

fleshy, seeds arillate. 

A rather large tropical genus, divided by some 

authors into a number of poorly defined or at 

least very similar genera. One or two species are 

commonly cultivated as ornamentals in tropical 

countries, one of these in Marquesan gardens. 

Tabernaemontana divaricata (L.) R. Brown ex 

Roemer & Schultes 

Tabernaemontana divaricata (L.) R. Brown ex Roemer & 

Schultes, Syst. Veg. 4:427, 1819.-F. Brown, Flora, 234, 1935. 

Nerium divaricatum L., Sp. Pl., 209, 1753. 

Tabernaemontana coronaria (Jacquin) Willdenow, Enum. 

Nerium coronaririm Jacquin, Coll. 1:138, 1786 [= 17871; Icon. 

Ervatamia coronaria (Jacquin) Stapf, in Thistleton-Dyer, F1. 

Ervatamia divaricata (L.) Burkill, Rec. Bot. Surv. India, 10: 

Hort. Berol. 1:275, 1809. 

PI. Rar., 5, t. 52, 1781-1786 [=1787]. 

Trop. Afr. 4(1):127, 1902. 

320, 1925. 

Shrub with rather elliptic glossy, dark green 

leaves, margins tending to be wavy, panicles small, 

calyx small with few glands; corolla large (in culti- 
26 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

vated forms), white, 2-3 cm or more across, usually 

double, with almost no odor, follicles dry, oblong, 

with recurved beaks, rarely seen in cultivated plants. 

Commonly planted; somewhat gardenia-like in 

appearance. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-HiVaOa I.: Atuona, shady garden, Sachet 

1251 (US): PES (M k* A) 405 (BISH, LeB); PES Ex 313 

(BISH). 

ETHNOB0TANY.-The Tahitian name tiare moorea 

(Moorea gardenia, or flower) is also used in the 

Marquesas. 

Thevetia L. 

Thmetia L., Opera varia (Soulsby no. 9), 212, 1758 [nom. 

cons.]. 

Small tree densely branched, leaves a1 ternate, 

corolla narrowly campanulate; fruit a soft broadly 

obovoid drupe with a trapezoidal flat stone. 

A tropical American genus with one or two 

widely planted species. 

Thevetiu peruvianu (Persoon) K. Schumann 

Theuetia peruuiana (Persoon) K. Schumann in Engler and 

Prantl, Nat. Pflanz. 4(2):159, 1895. 

Cerbera peruuiana Persoon, Syn. Pl., 1:267, 1805. 

Cerbera theuetia L., Sp. PI., 209, 1753. 

Theuetia neriifolia Jussieu ex Steudel, Nom. Bot., ed. 2, 

2:680, 1841 [as nereifolia].--A. de Candolle, Prodr., 8:343, 

1844.-F. Brown, Flora, 235, 1935 [as nereifolia]. 

Leaves linear, green on both sides, veins obscure; 

corolla bright yellow (or, in forma aztrantiaca, 

salmon color), limb not strongly flaring. 

The plant is considered poisonous and the seeds 

contain the powerful drug, thevetin. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Nukuhiva I.: Brown 714 (BISH). 

Hivaoa I.: Atuona, roadside near sea-level, PES (M & A) 

335 (BISH, LeB), PES Ex 335 (BISH). 

ASCLEPIADACE AE 

Vines, rarely shrubs or herbs, usually lactiferous, 

leaves usually opposite or whorled, simple, exstipulate, inflorescence often umbelloid, calyx united at 

least at base, corolla united, an elaborately developed corona frequently present, stamens 5, filaments usually connate, anthers closely united in a 

ring around the pistil, pollen fused in waxy masses 

or pollinia (in subfamily Periplocoideae in tetrads); 

pistil of two free carpels united by a sessile stigma; 

fruit of two separate follicles, usually many seeded; 

seeds usually comose. 

This important tropical family is represented 

in the Marquesas only by one introduced weedy 

species of Asclepias, sometimes planted as an 

ornamental. 

Asclepias L. 

Asclepias L., Gen. Pl., ed. 5, 102, 1754 [=1753]. 

Erect herbs with mostly opposite leaves, umbels 

terminal or subterminal, flowers rotate or broadly 

campanulate, with showy corona usually ornamented with hoods or horns, hiding the anthers, stigma 

fleshy, seeds with a conspicuous coma of hairs at 

one end. 

A mostly temperate and subtropical genus, with 

one species widely dispersed in the tropics as an 

ornamental or weed. 

Asclepias curassavica L. 

Asclepias curassavica L., Sp. Pl., 215, 1753.-Jardin, Mem.

SOC. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, 5:297, 314, 1857.-Jouan, Mem. 

SOC. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, 11:114, 1865.-Drake, Ill., 235, 

1892; Flore, 127, 1892.-F. Brown, Flora, 237, 1935. 

Slender herb to 1 m tall, leaves thin, lanceolate, 

corolla reddish orange, coronas orange, follicles 

narrowly fusiform, smooth. 

A Mexican species, widespread in the Pacific 

Islands, originally planted in gardens, now naturalized in disturbed weedy places. In the Marquesas 

it is occasionally seen, but is generally uncommon. 

SPEcrhiEHs Smii.--hlarquesas Islands: Herb. S.F.I.M. 20 (P). 

Eiao I.: Common, Jones 15424 (BISH); plateau above 

Vaituha Bay, Decker 227 (BISH, US, UC, P). 

Nukuhiva I.: Savatier 1975 (P); above Uea Valley, 150-200 

m, Decker 2032 (US): Hakaui, Brown 771 (BISH). 

Uahuka I.: Upper Ha'avei Valley, 200-250 m, Decker 1484 

(US, BISII, Fo) Vaipae'e, 50 m, Decker 1762 (US): Brown 

I818 (BISH); Quagle 1722 (BISH). 

Uapou I.: Brou'n 1091 (BISH). 

Hivaoa I.: Atuona, 800 m, rare, PES Ex il (BISH); Tepehi 

(above Hanamenu), exposed hillside, 600 m, PES (iff G A) 

420 (BISH); Natue Valley, 0-100 ft 10-30 m], Decker 1233 

(US); Atuona, Brouv 3i7 (BISH); Hana Japa, Quayle 1635 

(BISH). 

Fatuiva I.: Omoa, Brown 996 (BISH). 
NUMBER 23 27 

ETHNoB0TANY.-According to Jouan, this plant 

was introduced into Tahiti in 1839 and into the 

Marquesas (Nukuhiva) at the very beginning of 

the French occupation in 1842, and was spreading 

around Taiohae when he left in 1856. Jardin said 

the Marquesans made soft cushions from the seed 

plumes. Both give the name “Kirika,” a borrowing 

from the English “silk.” Related names are Kirita 

(Decker 1762), puakirita (Herb. S.F.Z.M. 20), and 

tiru wu vaikirita (PES Ex 71). Still other names: 

“herbe de hlme Boivin,” LeBronnec (MS) and F. 

Brown (1935:237) cite also vevai from Fatuiva. 

CONVOLVULACEAE 

Herbaceous or woody twiners or creepers, rarely 

erect herbs, shrubs or, very rarely, trees, frequently 

lactiferous, but not copiously so; leaves alternate, 

frequently cordate, hastate or sagittate, simple but 

occasionally deeply divided or palmatifid, rarely 

pinnately divided or even apparently palmately 

compound; stipules none; calyx of 5 free sepals; 

corolla sympetalous, not ordinarily deeply divided; 

stamens 5, attached to corolla near base, or part 

way up tube; ovary superior, 2-4 celled with 4 

basal ovules, style usually single, filiforrn, rarely 2 

and branched; stigmas 1-3, thickened, fruit a 2-, 

3-, or 4-celled dehiscent or indehiscent capsule, 

rarely fleshy, spongy, or corky, cells 3- or 4-seeded. 

An important tropical family with a few temperate members; includes many widespread pioneers and weedy species, as well as tropical forest 

lianas. 

Key to Marquesan Genera of Convolvulaceae 

I. Anthers coiled, pollen not spinulose, corolla funnelform with tube included in calyx, epicarp 

in fruit circumscissile, lid caducous, leaving a transparent circular window in endocarp 

showing locules with seeds Operculina 

2. Leakes black-punctate beneath, corolla light purple, 8-10 cm long, fruiting calyx spongy, 

tightly and completely enclosing fruit when mature Stictocmdio 

2. Leaves not black-punctate beneath, corolla, if 8 cm or more long, white, fruiting calyx 

1. Anthers straight, pollen spinulose, corolla various 2 

opening at maturity and exposing fruit 

Zpomoea L. 

Ipomoea L., Gen. PI., ed. 5, 76, 1754 [=1753]. 

Calonyction Choisy, Mem. SOC. Phys. Hist. Nat. Geneve, 

Quamoclit Moench, Meth., 453, 1794. 

Batatas Choisy, Mem. SOC. Phys. Hist. Nat. Geneve, 6:434, 

6:441, 1833. 

1833. 

Twining herbaceous to woody vines, rarely erect 

herbs; leaves simple, usually cordate, entire to 

deeply divided, petiolate; peduncles axillary; corolla narrowly funnelform or companulate, regular 

to somewhat zygomorphic, entire to somewhat 5- 

lobed, plicate in bud, median lines heavy, intervening areas membranous; anthers included or 

exserted, straight; pollen grains spinulose; style 1, 

filiform, elongate, stigmas globose, 1, 2, or 3; fruit 

a capsule, dehiscent in 4 valves or irregularly. 

A large pantropical and warm-temperate genus, 

found on almost all Pacific islands including the 

Marquesas; many of the species widespread and 

weedy, found on beaches and in disturbed places, 

Ipomoea 

a few found in lowland forests. General English 

name: “morning-glory.’’ 

Zpomoea alba L. 

Ipomoea alba L., Sp. PI., 161, 1753. 

Conuoluulus aculeatus L., Sp. PI., 155, 1753 [non Ipomoea 

aculeata Blume]. 

fpomoea bona-nox L., Sp. PI., ed. 2, 228, 1762 [nom. illegit. 

superfl.]. 

Calonyction bona-nox (L.) Bojer, Hort. Maur., 227, 1837.- 

F. Brown, Flora, 238, 1935. 

Calonyction speciosurn Choisy, Mem. SOC. Phys. Hist. Nat. 

Geneve 6:441, t. 1, f. 4, 1833.-Jardin, Mem. SOC. Sci. Nat. 

Cherbourg, 5:297, 315, 1857.-Delmas, in Dordillon, Dict. 

Marqu. 2585, 1932 [sub pohue]. 

Cafonyction aculeatum (L.) House, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 

31:590, 1904. 

Calonyction album (L.) House, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 31: 

590, 1904. 

Extensive usually glabrous liana, lower stems 

thick but scarcely woody, frequently more or less 

beset with fleshy spine-like processes; leaves cor- 
28 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

Key to Marquesan Species of Zpomoea 

1. Leaves bilobed at apex .......................................................................... 1. pescaprae ssp. brasiliensis 

1. Leaves not bilobed at apex ........................................................................................................... 2 

2. Leaves entire or lobed, stamens included ................................................................................... 3 

3. Sepals lanceolate, conspicuously acuminate, over 1 cm long ............................................ 

3. Sepals oblong, elliptic, ovate, or orbicular, not long-acuminate ..................................... 4 

4. Inner sepals not conspicuously broad toward apex or subtruncate, usually oblong 

to orbicular or ovate ........................................................................................................ 5 

5. Plant a creeper, leaves rather triangular in general outline, entire or variously 

lobed .................................................................................................................... I. batatas 

5. Plant a twiner or climber, leaves more or less orbicular or triangular-ovate, 

2. Leaves pinnately dissected, flowers red, stamens exserted ............................. ..I. quamlit 

................................................................. 1. indica [not definitely known from the Marquesas] 

4. Inner sepals broad toward apex, subtruncate ................................................ I. littoralis 

strongly cordate ............................................................................................................ 6 

6. Slender vine, sepals 34 mm long, corolla up to 2.5 cm long ........ ..I. obscura 

6. Coarse extensive vines or, if slender, leaves triangular-ovate and strongly 

acuminate, sepals well Over 6 mm long ......................................................... 7 

7. Leaves notably longer than wide, corolla 5-35 cm long, purple .................. 

I. tiliacea var. merremioides 

8. Stem usually with small fleshy spine-like processes, sepals strongly 

8. Stem usually smooth, sepals rounded at apex, at most very slightly 

..................................................................................... 

7. Leaves nearly orbicular, coarse vines, corolla well over 5 cm long. ........ 8 

mucronate, seeds glabrous .............................................................. 1. alba 

mucronulate, seeds pubescent ..................................... 1. macrantha 

date, entire to somewhat lobed; peduncles axillary, 

1 -several flowered, pedicels often thickened; flowers slightly zygomorphic, sepals strongly mucronate, 

5-15 mm long, corolla white, open at night, closing 

as the day warms up, up to 15 cm long, funnelform 

but almost salverform, tube well exserted, stamens 

and styles somewhat exserted, stigmas 2, globose; 

capsule ovoid; seeds glabrous. 

Pantropical, said to be of American origin, widely cultivated as the “moon-flower” and frequently 

naturalized; two doubtful collections from the 

Marquesas. Jardin’s record of Calonyction speciosum is probably this species but his specimen 

(179) has not been seen. Delmas’ description fits 

this species, which he reports to be rare and often 

confused with Z. macrantha. 

SPECIMENSEEN.-NUkUhiva I.: F. Brown 543 (BISH). 

Hivaoa I.: Makemake valley, 300 m, PES (hi G A) 22 

ETHNOBOTANY.--POhue (PES 22) is a general 

name for morning-glory lianas in Tahiti and the 

Marquesas. Delmas says it applies to two species of 

Zpomoea besides 1. alba. For the latter, he gives 

pohue nui (large pohue) or pua mahati, and pohue 

mata nui for the large white flower, and mahati 

(BISH, LeB). 

for the whole plant or the seeds used as a purgative. Jardin records this use and the name mahati 

for his no. 179 (not seen). 

Zpomoea batatus (L.) Lamarck 

Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lamarck, Tabl. Encycl., 1:465, 1791 

[ = 1793].-Endlicher, F1. Sudseeinseln, 173, 1836.-F. Brown, 

Flora, 238, 1935. 

Conuolvulirs batatas L., Sp. PI., 154, 1753. 

Convoludus chrysorrhizirs Solander ex Forster f., PI. Esc., 

55-56, 1786; Prodr. 89, 1786.-Endlicher, F1. Sudseeinseln, 

173, 1836. 

Conuoluulus eduh Thunberg. F1. Jap. 84, 1784. 

Batatas edulis (Thunberg) Choisy, MPm. SOC. Phys. Hist. Nat. 

Geneve 6:435, 1833.-Jardin, Mem. SOC. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg. 5:315. 1857.bjouan, Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg,

11:115, 1865. 

Glabrous creeper with enlarged fusiform edible 

roots, thick stems, not twining; leaves with long 

petioles, blades more or less triangular, acuminate, 

more or less cordate to subtruncate at base, sides 

entire or variously cut or lobed; seldom seen 

flowering; peduncles umbellately or irregularly 

branched at summit into 1-4 short pedicels, bracts 

very small; sepals glabrous, oblong to oblong-ovate, 
NUMBER 23 

up to 8 mm long, obtuse to acute, mucronate; 

corolla light purple, campanulate, 3.54 cm long; 

stamens and style less than half length of corolla. 

Pantropical in cultivation, generally agreed to 

be of American origin. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-NukUhiva I.: Langsdorff cited by Endlicher (1836:173) (not seen, probably in W and/or LE). F. 

Brown 956 (BISH) (leaves entire), 955 (BISH) (leaves deeply 

dissected); 962 (BISH) (leaves deeply dissected). 

Hivaoa I.: Atuona, sea-level, PES (M Q A) 330 (BISH) 

(leaves shallowly 5-lobed); 327 (BISH) (leaves subcordate, 

entire, broader than long); PES Ex 327 (BISH) (leaves very 

wide, 5-lobed, lobes acuminate); Taiaka Papuaei Valley, 

50 m, PES (M h A) 438 (BISH) (leaves ovate-cordate, gradually long-acuminate with wide u-shaped basal sinus. 

ETHNOB0TANY.-The general names for this species are sweet potato, patate douce, and, in the 

Marquesas, kumaa (Nukuhiva) or urnaa (Hivaoa, 

PES 327, 330, umaa papaoa, PES 438). F. Brown 

(1935:239) gives some names of varieties. So does 

LeBronnec (MS) who lists from Nukuhiva: “Kumaa 

Alierfon, K. Dore, K. Peaison (these three imported 

by Ch. Henry), K. huahua rnoa, K. Pikino, K. Rapanui, K. Rurutu, K. tavaie,” obviously most of 

these imported from other islands. I was surprised, 

in 1963, to see very few plants of this species in 

Hivaoa and did not collect it. Decker (pers. comm.) 

observed that the very abundant rat populations of 

the islands made it unprofitable to plant sweet 

potatoes, unless they could be watched constantly. 

Other crops requiring less vigilance and hard work 

in clearing the land are planted in preference, even 

though the Marquesans like sweet potatoes very 

much. 

While there is some evidence that the sweet 

potato was present on Easter Island before the 

arrival of Europeans, there is no conclusive proof 

that the same was true in the Marquesas. Indeed 

Mendaiia, who discovered the islands in 1595, 

mentioned neither finding nor planting them there 

(Brand, 1971:357, 359). Identification of plant remains from an archeological site on Uahuka 

(Kirch, 1973:35) did not include sweet potato. This 

site, excavated by Sinoto and Kellum in 1964, was 

dated (Sinoto, 1966:295, 302) as about mid-12th 

century A.D. None of this proves that the sweet 

potato was not present, of course, and, at any rate, 

it was fairly common at the end of the 19th century. Jardin (1857:315) makes the interesting 

remark that in the 1850s it was beginning to be 

cultivated by natives of Taiohae and Atiheu (Nukuhiva) not for their own use, but for sale to 

whalers. Jouan (1865:115), who left the Marquesas in 1856, records similar facts, but says that it is 

a recently introduced white variety, which is cultivated by the European residents for sale to whalers, 

a variety different from the generally yellow 

”Camotes” of Peru. Jardin gives the name kumaa, 

but mentions also two other varieties, tifau mei 

and fitau kaikaha. These, however, are varieties of 

yams, Dioscorea. F. Brown (1935:238) discussed uses 

and varieties, but some of his interpretations have 

been discounted by the foremost student of Pacific 

Islands sweet potatoes, Douglas Yen (1971:339). 

Yen (1974) collected 26 specimens from 5 islands in 

the Marquesas as part of his extensive study of the 

biology, genetics, and distribution of this species. 

Zpomoea littoralis Blume 

Ipomoea liltoralis Blume, Bijdr. 713, 1825 [=1826?]. 

Convolvulus dentictrlatus Desrousseaux in Lamarck, Encyl. 

Ipomoea den ticulata (Desrousseaux) Choisy, Mem. SOC. Phys. 

Ipomoea forsteri A. Gray in Mann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 7:195, 

Ipomoea gracilis sensu F. Brown et auct. plur. [non R. 

Mkth., 3:540, 1792. 

Hist. Nat. Geneve 6:467, 1833 [non R. Brown, 18101. 

1867.-Drake, Ill., 243, 1892; Flore, 134, 1892. 

Brown, Prodr., 484, 18101. 

Slender glabrous twiner; leaves broadly cordate, 

usually less than 5 cm across, sometimes somewhat 

trilobed, net-venation conspicuous; peduncles short, 

1-several flowered, bracts minute, caducous; sepals 

unequal in width, outer oblongelliptic, inner as 

broad as high, broadest at summit, slightly mucronate; corolla funnelform to campanulate, bright 

rose-purple, darker in throat, up to 4.5 cm long; 

stamens and style included, stigmas 2, globose; 

capsule glabrous, globose, about 9 mm in diameter; 

seeds black, glabrous. 

Pantropical lowland species usually misidentified 

as I. gracilis R. Brown, a local North Australian 

species. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Marquesas Islands: s.1. Henry 106 (P); 

Herb. S.F.I.M. 106 (P). 

Nukuhiva I.: s.1. Hoinbron in 1841 (US); Taipi Vai, Quayle 

1597 (BISH); Taiohae, 50 m, Broion 623 (BISH); PES (Af Zr 

A) 611 (BISH). 

Hivaoa I.: .4tuona, Brown 1038 (BISH). 

LOCAL NAMES.-F. Brown (1935:240) cites pama- 
30 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

ohe and Herb. S.F.Z.M. 106 bears the name umaha 

papaoa, which is really a variety of sweet potato 

and must be a misapplication. 

Zpomoea macrantha Roemer & Schultes 

Ipornoea macrantha Roemer & Schultes, Syst. Veg., 4:251, 

Zpornoea Zongiflora R. Brown, Prodr., 1:484, 1810 [non HumConvolvulus tuba Schlechtendal, Linnaea, 6:735-736, 1831. 

Zpomoea tuba (Schlechtendal) G. Don, Gen. Hist., 4:271, 1838. 

lpornoea glaberrima Bojer ex Bouton, Hook. Journ. Bot., 

1:357, 1834. 

Zpomoea bona-nox [as bona-noa, sphalm.] sensu Delmas in 

Dordillon, Dict. Marqu., ed. 2, 2:585, 1932 [sub pohue]. 

Zpornoea grandiflora sensu F. Brown, Flora, 241, 1935 [non 

(Jacquin) Jackson, 1895, nec Lamarck, 1797, nec Roxburgh, 

1814 (cf. Gunn, Brittonia, 24:153, 170, 1972)]. 

Extensive coarse glabrous twining liana, lower 

parts thickened but not very woody, in very dry 

situations forming a short very thick trunk, which 

annually produces herbaceous elongate stems, 

which die back during the dry seasons; leaves somewhat fleshy, or not, cordate orbicular, somewhat 

acuminate, to 15 cm across; peduncles 1-few flowered, cymose, pedicels thickened, or even somewhat turbinate; sepals orbicular, apex rounded, 

15-25 mm long, accrescent and very thick in fruit; 

corolla white, to 10 cm long, with very long tube 

and flaring limb, opening at night; stamens and 

style included, stigmas 2; capsule globose or subglobose, to 2.5 cm long, enclosed by accrescent 

fleshy sepals, which later become reflexed and dry; 

seeds with black tomentum, long hairs on edges. 

Pantropical species of strand and other lowland 

situations, climbing over thickets and trees; apparently uncommon in the hlarquesas. 

SrEciMEEjs SEEN.-HatUtaa I.: atop main ridge, 1300 ft 

[400-500 m], Decker 351 (US); very common vine, 10400 m, 

Jones 1550 (BISH). 

1819. 

boldt & Bonpland ex Willdenow, 18091. 

Nukuhiva I.: Hombron in 1841 (P). 

Uahuka I.: 280-300 m, crest of ridge west of Vaipae’e Valley, occasional, Decker I703 (US, Fo); 40-60 m, ridge on east 

flank of Vaipae’e below Tahoatikikau crater, here common, 

Decker 1748 (US, 2 sheets). 

Uapou I.: Hoho’i valley, not far from the sea, near 

streams, Lavondes 27 (US). 

Hivaoa I.: Eastern Puamau, by trail approximately 200 m 

east of Catholic mission, occasional but conspicuous, Decker 

741 (Fo) sterile, poor specimen probably this species. 

ETHNOBOTANY.-POhue, the general name for 

morning-glory vines is applied to this species 

(Lavondess 27). Delmas cites pohue or pohueiti 

(small pohue, by comparison with I. alba). F. Brown 

gives mahati, probably confusing this species with 

I. alba. Piritai (Decker 1748) should, according to 

Delmas, be applied to I. alba; he notes that the 

two are often confused. 

Fruit used medicinally in some child’s disease, 

and stems used formerly as jumping ropes (Lavondes 27). 

Zpomoea obscura (L.) Ker-Gawler 

Zpornoea obscura (L.) Ker-Gawler, Bot. Reg., 3:239, 1817.- 

Convolvulus obscurus L., Sp. Pl., ed. 2, 220, 1762. 

F. Brown, Flora, 240, 1935. 

Slender twiner, almost glabrous to notably pilose; 

leaves broadly cordate, acuminate, up to 5 cm in 

diameter, with broad rounded basal sinus, margins 

subentire to finely crenulate, more or less ciliate, 

petioles slender, 2-6.5 cm long; flowers 1-several in 

pedunculate cymes, in each cyme one flower open 

at a time, peduncles 2-5 (or even 10) cm long, 

pedicels 1-1.5 cm, somewhat dilated upward; sepals 

4-6 mm long, elliptic or elliptic ovate to oval or, 

in fruit, orbicular, the inner broader, mucronate; 

corolla campanulate-funnelform, flaring, 1.5-2 cm 

long, 1.5-2.5 cm broad, white or cream to sulfuryellow, with dark purple center; stamens and pistil 

included; capsule subglobose, to 1 cm long, beaked, 

exserted from calyx, firm; seed 2.5 X 3.5 mm, 

plump, dark brown, sericeous tomentose. 

SrEcrarENs SEE&.--NUkllhiVa I.: Eastern Taiohae, 0.5 km \%’ 

old Fort Collet, 1-3 m, Decker 2103 (US, BISH). 

Uahuka I.: 10 m, sand dunes Hane Village, yard of hospital, common, Decker I941 (Fo). 

Hivaoa I.: Miti taua’o’o, hill on SW corner of Puamau 

Bay, 100 ft [30-50 m], here common, Decker 610 (US, P, Fo, 

BISH, UC); central Puamau valley, 5 m, waste places in uncleaned plantation, common, Decker 820 (US, P, Fo, BISH); 

western Puamau, 250 ft [iO-90 m], ravine in coconut plantation in upper paddock, occasional, Decker 843 (US, P); central Puamau, 700 ft [300-400 m], mixed subsistence and 

copra plantation, mainly of trees, occasional, Decker 1095 

(US, P, UC). 

Zpomoea pes-caprae (L.) R. Brown 

Zpomoea pes-caprae (L.) R. Brown in Tukey, Narrat. Exped. 

Convolvulus pes-caprae L., Sp. PI., 159, 1753. 

Zaire, 477, Mar. 1818. 
NUMBER 23 31 

Ssp. pes-caprae of this pantropical strand species 

is not found in the central Pacific, but mostooy in 

the Indian Ocean area. 

Zpomoea pes-caprae ssp. brasiliensis (L.) 

van Ooststroom 

Ipomoea pes-caprae ssp. brasiliensis (L.) van Ooststroom, 

Convolvulus brasiliensis L., Sp. PI., 159, 1753. 

Convolvulus maritimus Desrousseaux in Lamarck, Encyl. 

Mkth., 3:550, 1789 [=1792]. 

Ipomoea maritima (Desrousseaux) R. Brown, Prodr., 486, 

1810.-Jardin, Mem. SOC. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, 5:335, 1857. 

Ipomoea pes-caprue sensu Jouan, Mem. SOC. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, 11: 116, 1865.-Drake, 111. 244, 1892; Flore, 132, 

1892.-Delmas in Dordillon, Dict. hlarqu. 2:585, 1932 [sub 

pohue].-F. Brown, Flora, 240, 1935, and most Pacific authors [non (L.) R. Brown (vide supra)]. 

Prostrate, coarse, glabrous creeper, tending to 

form dense mats; leaves coriaceous, oblong or oval 

to broadly ovate, normally bilobed or at least 

deeply emarginate at apex, rounded to somewhat 

cordate at base, on stout petioles; peduncles erect, 

stout, with I-several pedicellate flowers disposed in 

cymes; sepals elliptic to orbicular, outer ones narrower, obtuse, mucronulate, glabrous, up to about 

1 cm long; corolla funnelform to campanulate, 

rose purple, darker in center, 3-5 cm long; stamens 

and style included, stigmas 2, globose; capsule 

globose, 12-15 mm high; seeds densely browntomentose, dull yellowish when the tomentum is 

worn off. 

Blumea, 3:533, 1940. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-hfarqUeSaS Islands: s.l., Dupetit-Thouars 

8 (P): Herb. S.F.I.M. 79 (P). 

Eiao I.: Plateau above Vaituha Bay, 1500 ft, Decker 206 

(BISH, US, UC, P); windward slopes, Jones 1538 (BISH). 

Nukuhiva I.: Hombron in 1841 (P); Uea Valley, strand 

above shingle beach, 2 m, locally very common, Decker 2028 

(US): Taio Hae Bay, Chapin 748 (NY). 

Uahuka I.: 2 m, strand behind sandy beach, Vaipae’e, very 

common, Decker If9f (US). 

Hivaoa I.: s.I., Brown 378 (BISH); Atuona, PES (M & A) 

119 (BISH, LeB); near Atuona, 300 m, PES Ex 22 (BISH); 

central Puamau strand, just behind beach ridge of shingle, 

very rocky. very common and conspicuous, Decker 776 (BISH, 

US, Fo); Natue, to 100 ft [30 m], long uninhabited valley of 

east of Puamau near Mata Fenua, very common on strand, 

Decker 1228 (US): Atuona, Chapin 752 (NY); Atuona beach, 

forming large mats locally, Sachet 1212 (US, P, UH, Fo). 

LOCAL NAMEs.-one of three species called 

pohue by Delmas and on Herb. S.F.I.AI. 79, PES 

119; pohue and paniaoe by F. Brown, neaho-paoue 

(Dupetit-Thouars 8), paniahoe by Jardin and Jouan. 

Zpomoea quamoclit L. 

Ipomoea quamoclit L., Sp. Pl., 159, 1753. 

Convolvulus pennatus Desrousseaux in Lamarck, Encyl. 

hfkth., 3:567, 1791 [=1792]. 

Quamoclit pennata (Desrousseaux) Bojer, Hort. Maur., 224, 

1837 [as pinnata]. 

Quamoclit vulgaris Choisy, Mkm. SOC. Phys. Hist. Nat. 

Genkve 6:434, 1833.-Jardin, hlkm. SOC. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, 5:297, 1857. 

Slender glabrous twiner; leaves pinnately divided into linear or filiform lobes; peduncles axillary, much longer than leaves, 1-several flowered, 

bracts nearly obsolete; pedicels 1-3 cm long, tending to be thickened toward apex; sepals oblong, 

obtuse to rounded, mucronate, corolla bright red, 

about 3 cm long, very narrowly funnelform, limb 

short but deeply lobed; capsule ovoid, obtuse at 

apex, glabrous, tending to split rather irregularly, 

valyes thin, seeds glabrous, mottled brownish on 

black. 

Pantropical species cultivated for its feathery 

leaves and small but bright red flowers. 

SPECIMEN RECORDED.-NUkUhiVa I.: ,Jardin 186 (not seen). 

Jardin’s record of Quamoclit vulgaris is probably 

this species, but his collection was not found in 

Paris. There are no other records, but the species 

should be looked for in the Marquesas. 

Zpomoea tiliacea (Willdenow) Choisy 

Ipomoea tiliacea (Willdenow) Choisy in de Candolle, Prodr. 

ConvoZvulus tiliaceus Willdenow, Enum PI., 203, 1809. 

9:375, 1845. 

This species has previously been known from 

the Pacific only from Fiji and Tonga, where it was 

formerly usually called Ipomoea fastigiata (Roxburgh) Sweet. Otherwise it is tropical American. 

The Marquesan collections seem to represent a 

distinctive population with a few characters uncommon or absent in the variable, widespread 

American species. 

Zpomoea tiliacea var. merremioides Fosberg 

Ipomoea tilincen var. me?-remioides Fosberg, in Fosberg and 

Sachet, Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 21:14, 1975. 
32 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY 

Glabrous climber but not very conspicuously 

twining, leaves thin, blades triangular-ovate, much 

longer than wide, up to 10 X 5 cm, apex taperingacuminate, base broadly and strongly cordate with 

a U-shaped sinus and rounded basal lobes, petioles 

slender, notably shorter than blades; inflorescence 

umbelloid in appearance but a condensed, once to 

twice ramified, cymose panicle on a long peduncle, 

to 13 cm, pedicels much longer than branches, 

these 1-16 mm, bracts minute, scale-like, sepals 

elliptic or elliptic-oblong to slightly obovate, about 

8 mm long, obtuse, outer ones mucronate, corolla 

funnelform, 3-3.5 cm long, limb only slightly 

flaring, 2.5-3 cm wide, "rose-mauve," stamens included in basal '/s of throat, unequal in length, 

shorter than style, anthers very narrowly sagittate, 

straight, 2-2.5 mm long, filaments subulate, glabrous apically, increasingly beset with short glandtipped hairs below, pollen grains globose, very 

shortly spinulose; pistil 16 mm long, ovary subglobose, glabrous, style filiform, glabrous, stigma 

irregularly capitate, fruit globose, about 5 mm 

high, subtended by an entire disk, usually somewhat asymmetric, glabrous, beaked with persistent 

short style-base, this somewhat off-center, only one 

seed developed, this shot-like, 4 mm across, with 

2 basal somewhat flattened areas edged on outer 

parts with sparse brown wool, scar light brown, 

obovate, surrounded by horse-shoe-shaped very low 

ridge, general seed-surface dull sooty brown. 

The Marquesan specimens differ from those of 

Fiji and Tonga, as well as from the vast majority 

of the American ones, in being glabrous, in the 

much smaller much more funnelform, less flaring 

corollas, enlarging abruptly above the calyx, the 

abruptly short-mucronate rather than more gradually acuminate-aristate sepals, the usually much 

longer peduncles, and the entire, long-acuminate 

leaves rather than more or less orbicular, dentate 

or lobed. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.-Hivaoa I.: Atikoua valley, above Atuona, 

20-100 m, Sachet 1300 (US, type, P, UH); upper PuamauAtuona trail, 500650 m, Decker 1157 (US); Puamau-Eiaone 

divide, top of ridge, 300 m, Decker 932 (US); Central Puamau, 800-1000 ft [250-350 m], common, Decker 1072 (US, P, 

Fo, UC). 

Operculina Manso 

Operculina Manso, Enum. Subst. Braz., 16, 1836. 

Coarse twining vines; leaves large, cordate; cymes 

axillary, pedunculate, bracteate; sepals usually 

accrescent; corolla broadly funnelform to campanulate; stamens included, adnate to corolla tube, anthers becoming spirally twisted; style 1, included, 

stigmas 2, globose; ovary 2-celled, 2 ovules in a 

cell; fruit a capsule, the epicarp circumscissile, separating from the persistent transparent endocarp, 

this eventually breaking irregularly. 

A small pantropical genus with two species in 

the Pacific, one native and widespread reaching the 

Marquesas. 

Operculina turpethum (L.) Manso 

Operculina turpethum (L.) Manso, Enum. Subst. Braz., 16, 

Convolvulus turpethum L., Sp. PI., 155, 1753. 

1836. 

Coarse subglabrous twiner with angled to winged 

stems (Marquesan specimens weakly angled, not 

winged); leaves elongate triangular with slightly 

liastate base to orbicular cordate, with broad basal 

sinus, puberulent; peduncles with 1-3 flowers, pedicels becoming very thick, 2-4 cm long, bracts less 

than 2 cm long, early caducous; calyx lobes large, 

orbicular, apex rounded to obtuse, sharply mucronate, 2-3 cm long, sericeous, somewhat accrescent; 

corolla broadly campanulate, 5-6 cm long; capsule 

globose, about 1.5 cm long, or somewhat more; 

seeds black, glabrous. 

Apparently very rare in the Marquesas, no definite localities known. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.--Marquesas Islands: s.l., Dupetit-Thouars 

20 (US). Nukuhiva I.: Henry 57 (P). 

LOCAL NAME.--Pu~~u oke (Dupetit-Thouars 20). 

Stictocardia Hallier f. 

Stictocardia Hallier f., Bot. Jahrb., 18:159, 1894. 

Large twiners; leaves glandular beneath; peduncles axillary, bearing cymes; sepals elliptic to orbicular, greatly accrescent and thickened in fruit; 

corolla funnelform-campanulate; stamens and style 

included, pollen spinulose; stigmas 2, globose; 

capsule completely enclosed by accrescent calyx, 

globose, 4-celled, the septa with transverse wings, 

wall thin, irregularly dehiscent leaving the septa 

and their wings enclosing seeds; seeds pubescent. 
NUMBER 23 

Pantropical, with one species in the Marquesas. 

Differs from Zpomoea only in the glandular 

leaves, the thickened closed fruiting calyx and the 

structure of the capsule. 

Stictocardia campamdata (L.) Merrill 

Stictocardia campanulata (L.) Merrill, Phil. Journ. Sci., 9 

Bot., 133, 1914.-Delmas in Dordillon, Dict. Marqu. ed. 2, 

2:586, 1932 [sub puhipuhi]. 

Ipomoea campanulata L., Sp. PI. 160, 1753. 

Conuoluulus tiliaefolius Desrousseaux in Lamarck, Encyl. 

Stictocardia tiliaefolia (Desrousseaux) Hallier f., Bot. Jahrb., 

Meth., 3:544, 1789 [=1792]. 

18:159, 1894. 

Extensive but rather slender short-pubescent 

twiner. Leaves broadly ovate cordate with open 

sinus, apex slightly blunt-acuminate; peduncles I-, 

rarely 3-, flowered, mostly shorter than leaves; 

sepals about 15 mm long, the inner exceeding 

outer, almost truncate, inner remotely ciliate, sepals 

enormously accrescent and becoming thick and 

spongy and completely enclosing the fruit; corolla 

delicate, lavender, narrowly campanulate but 

strongly flaring, 8-10 cm long, stamens and style 

included, fruiting sepals 4 cm long, closely investing capsule, capsule about 2.5-3 cm long, globose; 

seeds brown, shortly and sparsely sericeous. 

Pantropical, widespread in the Pacific Islands. 

SPECIMENS SEEN.--Eiao I.: side of ridge, 400 m, Jones 1517 

(BISH). Hivaoa I.: Makemake Valley, 300 m, PES (M 6. A) 

16 (BISH, LeB). 

LOCAL NAME.--Pu~~~u~~ (PES 16); also cited by 

Delmas as aupuhi in Uapou. 
Literature Cited 

Adamson, A. M. 

1936. Marquesan Insects: Environment. Bernice P. Bishop 

Museum Bulletin, 139:l-73. 

Aubert de la Rue, E. 

1958. Tahiti et ses archipels: Polynesie francaise. 158 

pages. Paris. 

Brand, D. D. 

1971. The Sweet Potato: An Exercise in Methodology. 

Pages 343-365 in Carroll L. Riley, J. Charles Kelley, 

Campbell W. Pennington, Robert L. Rands, editors, Man across the Sea: Problems of Pre-Columbian 

Contacts, Austin, Texas, and London. 

An Index to the Islands of the Pacific Ocean. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Memoir, 1:85-[256]. [Also 

issued in 1900 as separate 1-[172].] 

Flora of Southeastern Polynesia, I: Monocotyledons. 

Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, 84:l-194, 

plates 1-35. 

Flora of Southeastern Polynesia, 111: Dicotyledons. 

Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, 13O:l-386, 

plates 1-9. 

Plants, Man and Landscape in Marquesan Valleys, 

French Polynesia. 324 pages. Ann Arbor: University 

Microfilms 71-9790. 

Brigham, W. T. 

1900. 

Brown, F. B. H. 

1931. 

1935. 

Decker, B. G. 

1970. 

Drake del Castillo, E. 

1886-1892. Illustrationes Florae Insularum Mark Pacifici. 

7 fascicles, 458 pages, 50 plates. Paris. 

1892. Flore de la Polynesie Francaise: Description des 

plantes vasculaires qui croissent spontanement ou 

qui sont generalement cultivies aux lles de la 

Societe, Marquises, Pomotu, Gambier et Wallis. . . . 352 pages. Paris. 

Fosberg, F. R. 

1939. Psychotria (Rubiaceae) in the Marquesas Islands. 

Notulae Systematicae, 8:161-173. 

1966. Lebronnecia, gen. nov. (Malvaceae) des Iles Marquises. Adansonia, 6:507-510. 

1975. Polynesian Plant Studies 1-5. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany, 21:l-25. 

Fosberg, F. R., and M.-H. Sachet 

Grant, M. L., F. R. Fosberg, and H. M. Smith 

1974. Partial Flora of the Society Islands: Ericaceae to 

Apocynaceae. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany, 

17 : 1-85. 

Jardin, E. 

1857. Essai sur l'histoire naturelle de l'archipel de Mendana ou des Marquises. 2e partie: Botanique. Me'- 

moires de la Societe Imperiale des Sciences naturellese

de Cherbourg, 5:289-331 [reprinted and repaged, 

18621. 

Recherches sur l'origine et la provenanc`e de certains vegetaux phanerogames observes dans les Eles 

du Grand-Ocean. Memoires de la Societe Nationale

des Sciences Naturelles et Mathematiques de Cherbourg, 11:81-178. 

Decouverte et toponymie des iles de la Polynesie 

Francaise. Bulletin de la Societe de Etudes Oceaniennes, 14(171):314-374. 

Jouan, H. 

1865. 

Jourdain, P. 

1970. 

Kirch, P. V. 

1973. Prehistoric Subsistence Patterns in the Northern 

Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. Archaeology 

Q Physical Anthropology in Oceania, 8:2440. 

Mission aux iles Marquises. Cnhiers du Pacifique, 

Sachet, M.-H. 

1966. 

9:11-13. 

Sachet, M.-H, and F. R. Fosberg 

1955. 

1971. 

Island Bibliographies. 577 pages. Itlashington, D C. 

Island Oibliographies Supplement. 427 pages. Washington, D.C. 

A Tentati\e Prehistoric Cultural Sequence in the 

Northern Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. 

Journal of the Polynesian Society, 75:287-303. 

Construction of the Hypothesis for Distribution of 

the Sweet Potato. Pages 328-342 in Carroll L. Riley, 

J. Charles Kelley, Campbell W. Pennington, Robert 

L. Rands, editors, Man Across the Sea: Problems of 

Pre-Columbia Contacts. Austin, Texas, and London. 

The Sweet Potato and Oceania: .4n Essay in Ethnobotany. Bernice P. Bishop Alnseum Bulletin, 236: 

Sinoto, Y. H. 

1966. 

Yen, D. E. 

1971. 

1974. 

1-390. 

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