Subshrubs, vines, or rarely herbs [shrubs], annual or perennial. Stems usually ± twining-climbing, sometimes ascending, erect, prostrate, reclining, scandent, scrambling, or trailing, hairy, hairs usually branched and/or stellate, rarely simple and/or glandular. Leaves petiolate; blade elliptic, obovate, ovate, or suborbiculate, (10–)60–160 mm, base cordate, cuneate, rounded, or truncate, margins usually entire, sometimes slightly repand, apex acuminate, acute, attenuate, obtuse, or retuse. Inflorescences usually cymes, lax to dense, 2–20+-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary; bracts usually relatively small, rarely foliaceous. Flowers: sepals persistent in fruit, often accrescent, shape various, equal or unequal; corollas usually blue or white, sometimes pink, lavender, or violet, campanulate to funnelform or rotate, limb entire, 5-angled, or deeply incised and 5-lobed; ovary 2-locular; styles 1, filiform; stigmas 2, each ellipsoid or oblong, flattened, tongue-shaped. Fruits capsular, ± globose, dehiscent by (4–)8 valves. Seeds (1–)4, trigonous, glabrous, the 2 abaxial edges sometimes narrowly ridged or winged. x = 9.

Distribution

sw, c, e United States, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands (Hawaii), Australia.

Discussion

Species ca. 100 (7 in the flora).

Of the seven species of Jacquemontia in the flora area, four are known from southern Florida and two from southern Arizona; J. tamnifolia is fairly widespread in the southeastern United States. In 2012, J. verticillata (Linnaeus) Urban, known from Bahamas, Belize, Greater Antilles, and Mexico, was collected in Florida, Hillsborough County, on “foreign soil, probably deposited in 2011,...” (from label on University of South Florida herbarium specimen accession number 273728).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Jacquemontia agrestis, Jacquemontia curtissii, Jacquemontia havanensis, Jacquemontia pentanthos, Jacquemontia pringlei, Jacquemontia reclinata, Jacquemontia tamnifolia

Key

1	Leaf blades elliptic, obovate, ovate, or suborbiculate, bases rounded to cuneate, apices usually obtuse or retuse, sometimes acute, mucronate; corollas rotate, limbs deeply incised, 5-lobed.	> 2
2	Leaf blades ± fleshy; outer sepals broadly obovate, rhombic, ovate, or suborbiculate, margins ciliolate.	Jacquemontia reclinata
2	Leaf blades ± herbaceous to subcoriaceous; outer sepals broadly elliptic, obovate, ovate, or spatulate, margins not ciliolate.	> 3
3	Outer sepals obovate or spatulate; herbage hairs stellate, 4- or 5-armed.	Jacquemontia curtissii
3	Outer sepals ovate or broadly elliptic; herbage hairs stellate, 6- or 7-armed.	Jacquemontia havanensis
1	Leaf blades narrowly to broadly ovate, bases cordate to truncate, apices usually acuminate, acute, or attenuate, rarely obtuse; corollas campanulate, funnelform, or subrotate, limbs entire or ± 5-angled.	> 4
4	Inflorescences dense, capitate, bracts foliaceous, densely hairy, hairs simple, white, becoming ferruginous dry.	Jacquemontia tamnifolia
4	Inflorescences usually lax to compact, sometimes dense, bracts not foliaceous, glabrous or hairy, hairs stellate or simple, not becoming ferruginous.	> 5
5	Annuals; herbage hairs of 2 types: 1) stellate and 3-armed, 2) simple, stalked-glandular, the latter sometimes absent; outer sepals lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate.	Jacquemontia agrestis
5	Perennials or subshrubs; herbage hairs stellate, 3- or 4–6-armed, glandular hairs absent; outer sepals ovate, broadly ovate, rhombic, or suborbiculate.	> 6
6	Corollas white to pale blue or lavender; herbage hairs 4–6-armed; outer sepals broadly ovate to suborbiculate, base subcordate, apex acute.	Jacquemontia pringlei
6	Corollas blue; herbage hairs 3-armed; outer sepals usually rhombic, sometimes ovate, base narrowed to short stalk, apex long-attenuate.	Jacquemontia pentanthos