Cockspur

Pisonia aculeata is nearly pantropical, found throughout the New World tropics and is considered introduced in Africa, Asia, and the Phillipines, but in the flora area it reaches only to the lower Rio Grande valley and southern Florida. It is closely allied with the less widely distributed Pisonia capitata, and there appears to be no distinction between pistillate plants of the two species. A. L. Bogle (1974) discussed the possible presence of Pisonia aculeata var. macranthocarpa in the flora.

Vines or shrubs, to 3 m; vines subscandent, woody; branches spreading at right angles, armed with stout, recurved spines 6-20 mm. Stems velvety when young, glabrate later. Leaf blades ovate to obovate, 2-10 × 2-7 cm, base cuneate, apex subacute, glabrate. Inflorescences: staminate inflorescences subglobose, dense, 1-3 cm diam.; pistillate inflorescences subglobose at anthesis, more open in age; branches divaricate or ascending; fruiting pedicel 0.5-2 cm. Perianths: perianth of staminate flowers yellowish green, broadly campanulate, 2-3 mm, densely and shortly viscid-villous; perianth of pistillate flowers greenish, often blushed with red, 2-3 mm, puberulent. Fruits clavate, 7-10 × 3-4 mm, densely puberulent between glandular ribs, glands extending entire length of fruits.

Shrubs vinelike, climbing, to 20 m. Bark olive green. Stems with axillary spines, pilose or glabrous; branches pendent, often with 5-10 mm, recurved thorns. Petiole 1-1.5 cm; leaf blade ovate to elliptic, 3-10 × 1.5-5(-7) cm, ± leathery, abaxially greenish, adaxially dark green, glabrous, pubescent yellow-brown, lateral veins 4-6 pairs, base cuneate or rotund, apex acute or obtuse. Cymes axillary, yellow-brown pubescent. Pedicel with 3 ovate bracteoles near apex. Flowers unisexual; perianth yellow, fragrant. Male perianth tube funnelform, puberulous, apex 5-lobed, lobes short triangular. Stamens 6-8, exserted; anthers subglobose. Female perianth tube ovate-tubular, apex 5-lobed; style exserted; stigma lacerate. Fruit clavate, 7-14 × 4 mm, 5-ribbed, with rows of stalked glands and brownish black pubescent; carpopodium long. Fl. Jan-Jun.

Fla., Tex.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; Asia; Africa; Pacific Islands, Australia.

Flowering throughout spring.

Hammocks, moist thickets; 0-100[-1000]m.

Thickets along seashores and open forests. Hainan, SE Taiwan [Africa, America, Asia, Australia].

Pisonia aculeata L. Sp. PL 1026. 1753
Pisonia villosa Poir. in Lam. Kncyc, 5: 347. 1804.
Pisonia Sieberi Sehleeht. Linnaea 22: 876. 1822.
Pisonia loranthoides H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 7: 197. 1825.
Pallavia aculeata Veil. Fl. Flum. 151. 1825.
Pisonia monotaxadenia Wright; Sauv. Anal. Acad. Ci. Habana 7: 199. 1870.
Pisonia tomentosa Vahl; Heimerl, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 631, as synonym. 1896.
Pisonia grandifolia Standley, Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb. 13: 391. 1911. Not P. grandifolia Warb. 1891.
Densely branched shrub, often with a thick trunk, the branches stout, elongate, drooping or subscandent, usually armed with numerous stout, recurved, very rarely straight spines 6-20 mm. long, the bark of older stems reddish-brown, with few or no lenticels, the branchlets densely puberulent or shortvillous, rarely glabrate; petioles slender or stout, 0.5-3.5 cm. long; leaf -blades very variable in outline, commonly elliptic-oval, but often ovate-oblong, subrhombie, obovate, oval, obovate-orbicular, or even orbicular, 2.5-15 cm. long, 1.5-6 cm. wide, usually broadly or narrowly cuneate at the base but sometimes rounded or even subcordate, acute or acutish at the apex or abruptly acute or acuminate or even rounded or emarginate, thick and succulent, glabrous and lustrous on the upper surface or puberulent, glabrate beneath or puberulent or short-villous, always with at least sparse pubescence along the costa, the margins plane, the lateral veins evident or obsolete; peduncles stout, 0.8-5 cm. long, or the pistillate ones in fruit still longer; inflorescence loosely or densely cymose, many-flowered, at anthesis 2-6 cm. broad, the pistillate cymes in fruit often 10 cm. broad; pedicels at anthesis short, puberulent, short-villous, or hirtellous, the pubescence usually viscid, the pistillate pedicels in fruit 1.6 cm. long or less; staminate perianth broadly campanulate, 2-4 mm. long, densely puberulent or tomentulose, yellowishgreen, the lobes broad, acutish; stamens usually 6, twice as long as the perianth; pistillate perianth tubular, 2-3 mm. long, puberulent; fruit clavate, 9-12 mm. long, 3-4 mm. in diameter, rounded at the apex, narrowed at the base, thinly coriaceous, 5-augled, each angle furnished with a row of low uniseriate or obscurely biseriate glands, the faces glabrate or puberulent; seed cylindric, 7-10 mm. long, 1.5 mm. in diameter, brown.
Type locality: Jamaica.
Distribution: On sea beaches or hillsides, Florida keys and the West Indies; Tamaulipas to Sinaloa and Panama; also in tropical South America and Asia, and on many of the oceanic and continental islands.

Pisonia helleri Standley, sp. no v
Branches stout, dark reddish-brown, with few lenticels, armed with numerous stout recurved spines 4-10 mm. long, the branchlets glabrous or sparsely puberulent; petioles slender, 0.4-3.5 cm. long, glabrous; leaf-blades oval-elliptic, oblong-elliptic, ovate-oblong, or oval, 3.5-8.5 cm. long, 1.5-4.5 cm. wide, acute to attenuate at the base or rarely rounded, gradually or abruptly acute to attenuate at the apex, thick and succulent, deep-green, glabrous, the margins plane, the lateral veins usually nearly obsolete; peduncles of the staminate inflorescence 1-2.5 cm. long, stout, puberulent or short-villous, the cymes densely or loosely flowered, 2-4 cm. broad, the flowers yellowish-green, numerous, on pedicels 0.5-2 mm. long, the bractlets ovate or oblong, 1 mm. long, obtuse, densely puberulent, the perianth broadly campanulate, 2.5-3 mm. long, densely puberulent, the lobes deltoid, acutish; stamens 6 or 7, twice as long as the perianth; peduncles of the pistillate inflorescence 2-3 cm. long, slightly elongate in age, the cymes at first dense and only 1.5-2 cm. broad, in fruit 8-12 cm. broad, the pedicels at anthesis 0.5-2 mm. long, in age 1-3 cm. long, the perianth 2 mm. long, the tube short and stout, the limb ascending or spreading, the lobes broad, obtuse; fruit clavate or clavate-oblong, 10-14 mm. long, 5-6.5 mm. in diameter, rounded or slightly depressed at the apex, woody, 5-angled, the angles furnished with a row of low pluriseriate glands, the faces densely puberulent ; seed cylindric, acute at the base, about 1 cm. long and 2-3 mm. in diameter, dark-brown, striate.
Type collected two miles west of Bayamon, Porto Rico, April 29, 1899, Mr. b* Mrs. A. A. Heller 1245 (U. S. Nat. Herb. no. 426204).
Distribution : Porto Rico, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Antigua.