Triumfetta

Herbs, annual or perennial, subshrubs, [trees], taprooted. Stems erect, usually much-branched, hairy, hairs stellate or 1-rayed and apparently simple. Leaves petiolate; stipules subpersistent, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate; blade ovate or broadly ovate to oblong-elliptic, lanceolate-elliptic, or ovate-elliptic, rhombic-ovate, or suborbiculate, often palmately 3–5-lobed, herbaceous, margins serrate to dentate, surfaces usually stellate-pubescent, palmately 3–7-veined. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, cymose [solitary flowers or fasciculate], 2 or 3(–5)-flowered, simple or ultimately 1–4-branched, clusters leaf-opposed at axils, sometimes appearing subspicate. Flowers: sepals 5, [triangular-lanceolate] narrowly oblong to linear, valvate, often cucullate, commonly with hornlike subapical apiculum, stellate-pubescent to glabrate; petals 5 [absent or relatively small], yellow, narrowly oblanceolate to oblong or linear-oblong, usually with basal, adaxial glands; stamens 5–25[–60], on androgynophore; staminodes 0; ovary 2–4[or 5]-locular; ovules 1 or 2 per locule; styles 1, simple, short-cylindric; stigmas 2–5-lobed. Capsules globose to ovoid-globose or ovoid, 2–3[–6]-valved, spiny, spines uncinate [straight], glabrous or hairy, indehiscent [dehiscence loculicidal]. Seeds 1–2 per locule, irregularly ovoid to obovoid or pyriform, smooth. x = 8.

Distribution

se United States, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, Asia, Africa.

Discussion

Species 100–150 (3 in the flora).

Plants of Triumfetta vary in habit, in leaf size, shape, and vestiture, and in some floral features. Leaves are shed or smaller during stress (R. G. Collevatti et al. 1998). Fruits usually are necessary for unambiguous identification.

Selected References

Fryxell, P. A. 1998. A synopsis of the neotropical species of Triumfetta (Tiliaceae). In: P. Matthew and M. Sivadasan, eds. 1998. Diversity and Taxonomy of Tropical Flowering Plants. Calicut. Pp. 167–192.

Lay, K. K. 1950. The American species of Triumfetta L. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 37: 315–395.

Lower Taxa

Triumfetta pentandra, Triumfetta rhomboidea, Triumfetta semitriloba

Key

1	Capsules: spines glabrate, capsule surfaces densely tomentose-pilose.	Triumfetta rhomboidea
1	Capsules: spines retrorsely barbed or densely hirsute on 1 side, capsule surfaces glabrous or sparsely minutely hirtellous or densely tomentose	> 2
2	Herbs; capsules ovoid, densely tomentose, spines densely hirsute on 1 side; leaf surfaces: abaxial moderately hairy with mix of stellate hairs (laminae) and simple hairs (veins).	Triumfetta pentandra
2	Subshrubs; capsules globose to slightly ovoid, glabrous or sparsely minutely hirtellous, spines retrorsely barbed; leaf surfaces: abaxial (veins and laminae) densely stellate-pubescent.	Triumfetta semitriloba