Babeiro

Description:

Herbaceous vine, twining, 1-5 m in length, with watery latex. Stems green, cylindrical, slender, lenticellate, becoming hollow on drying. Leaves opposite; blades 4-19 × 3-9 cm, oval, ovate, rounded, or sometimes lanceolate, glabrous, chartaceous, the apex obtuse, acute, shortacuminate, or subrounded and mucronate, the base obtuse, rounded, or truncate, lacking glands and usually asymmetrical, the margins entire or undulate, revolute; upper surface dull green; lower surface pale green, dull, with a prominent midvein; petioles 0.5-4 cm long, canaliculate, pubescent; stipules intrapetiolar and interpetiolar, minute, acicular. Flowers in small axillary or terminal cymes. Calyx green, 2-3 mm long, with 5 ovate lobes, ca. 2 mm long; corolla infundibuliform, the tube greenish or creamcolored, 4-6 mm long, with 4 ribs, pilose inside, the limb pale yellow or cream-colored, with 5 oblong lobes, reflexed, 2-4 mm long. Follicles linear, 10-25 cm long, divaricate when mature; seeds numerous, 5-7 mm long, light brown, with cream-colored, silky hairs.

Habitat:

Abundant in thickets and coastal forests.