Photo of a hand cradling a yellow, ribbed, fleshy fruit. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Photo of a dry, open fruit that hangs like a basket. The seeds have already dispersed. The heart-shape leaves of the vine are in the background. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Aristolochia fruits are a marvel. Some, like A. dictyophlebia, are berry-like (the former Pararistolochia), but many are wonderful baskets, like this A. ringens, from which the flat seeds sift into the wind. #Aristolochiaceae #TropicalBotany #dispersal #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a leafy shoot with axillary flowers. The flowers are pipe-shaped and dark maroon. The lobes of the limb are elongated into three slender “tails.” Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

In addition to scent & color, the shape of the flowers is likely attractive to flies (Diptera). On A. tricaudata (“3 tails”), the long attenuate lobes of the perianth are probably fly attractants. Flies, it seems, like that sort of thing. #TropicalBotany #Aristolochiaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a cluster of cauliflorous flowers. Each flower has a tubular uniseriate perianth that is reddish but with a splash of white on the lower “lip” of the limb. The central “eye” is dark, almost black. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Erbar et al. (2016), “Aristolochia species are generally assumed to be brood-site fraudsters [that] simulate carrion or fungi.” They look & smell like a good place to lay eggs & are pollinated by ovipositing flies. 📷: A. arborea, which mimics fungi. #TropicalBotany #Aristolochiaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a thick woody climber wrapped around the trunk of a tree. From the stem of the climber are pendulous clusters of dozens (maybe hundreds) of brick-red tubular flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Close-up photo of the furrowed bark of a liana and the emergent cluster of flowers. The flowers are tubular and yellow. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Many tropical Aristolochia spp. are lianas, i.e., woody climbers. The 1st photo shows A. maxima, which is cauliflorous, producing long tresses of flowers from the main, woody stem. The 2nd photo is an unlabeled mystery from Atlanta Bot. Gard. #TropicalBotany #Aristolochiaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a large flower, POV looking straight at the flower. The heart-shaped flower is pale with a dense freckling of liver-colored spots & blotches. The central “eye” of the flower is dark maroon. The lowermost lobe of the limb is elongated into a thin “tail.” Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Flowers of Aristolochia are weird & wonderful. I find them irresistible. (Doesn’t everyone?) This is A. grandiflora, with its large, saxophone-shaped flowers, each with a long, tail-like lobe. #Aristolochiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a woody shoot and clusters of globose, greenish fruits.

Phyllanthus emblica produces edible fruits. They are greenish, about the size of ping-pong balls & have firm, crisp flesh around a single large seed. Dried fruits are available in large Asian groceries in my area. 📷: Vijay Anand Ismavel CCBYNC2. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of leafy shoots with large, ovate leaves. The shoots do not resemble pinnately compound leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Phyllanthus unifoliatus doesn’t have the Phyllanthus branching. The name suggests that this species, unlike others, is unifoliolate, but of course, all Phyllanthus have simple, not compound, leaves. This one is from New Caledonia. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a floating plant with shoots producing rounded leaves.

Here’s Phyllanthus fluitans, a floating aquatic species from southern Mexico and northern South America. I expected this to be a pantropical aquatic weed, but I see it’s escaped only in Florida (of course 😒). 📷: Eric Hunt CCBYNCND2 #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a flattened, paddle-shaped, green stem with marginal pink flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Phyllanthoid branching evolved only once but has been lost several times. Some species have kept the branching but ditched the leaves. Phyllanthus angustifolius of the Antilles has cladodes (flattened, photosynthetic branches). #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a small plant with an upright, primary axis and many secondary branches and tertiary branches that look like bipinnately compound leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

If you weren’t paying attention, you might mistake Phyllanthus myriophyllus, of Haiti, for a plant with bipinnate compound leaves, something like a young Delonix regia (Fabaceae). Remember, those are branches, not compound leaves. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a small plant with an upright, primary axis and many lateral branches that look like pinnately compound leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Phyllanthoid branching looks so much like pinnately compound leaves that even botanists can’t help but notice. Case in point: This is Phyllanthus juglandifolius. As the name suggests, the branches look like the leaves of walnut (Juglans spp.). #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo with POV looking down onto a shoot that has spirally arranged branches that look like pinnately compound leaves. Smaller, emerging branches look like emerging, expanding leaves.

Phyllanthus has what is called “phyllanthoid branching”: Orthotropic (erect) shoots with spirally arranged leaves & plagiotropic (horizontal) branches with distichous leaves. Guam’s P. saffordii shows the dimorphism. 📷: Lauren Gutierrez CCBYND2. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a small, herbaceous plant with short, indeterminate branches bearing small, elliptical leaves. The branches look like pinnately compound leaves. Small, green fruits dangle in the leaf axils, so we know these are leaves, not leaflets. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

I spend too much time pulling this annual weed from my garden in autumn: It’s Phyllanthus urinaria. At 1st glance, it looks like a single stem with pinnately compound leaves. Look again. The axillary flowers & fruits prove these “leaves” are branches. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of the unisexual flowers. These have six greenish white petals and a gynoecium of three fused carpels and three bifurcate stigmas.

Phyllanthus was once treated as yet another odd Euphorbiaceae. The unisexual flower & 3-part stigma fit, but they’re plesiomorphic*. We now place it in its own family, not esp. close to Euphorbiaceae. 📷: P. calycinus Philip Bouchard CCBYNCND2 #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
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Close-up photo of a pair of excised flowers. The left flower is female and has a large gynoecium at its center. The right flower is male and has a mass of stamens at its center.

Some Clusia flowers attract bees that collect resin from the flowers & inadvertently cause pollination. In Clusia grandiflora (📷: botanymiguelnino CCBYNC4), resin is produced from staminodia or anther connectives (in ♂) & carpels (in ♀). #Resin #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of the aerial roots, some of which have produced leafy shoots. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Photo of a limestone cliff with curtains of long, rope-like aerial roots descending in front of the it. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Clusia major (Trinidad & Lesser Antilles) has dangling aerial roots that eventually touch the earth—not surprising for a hemiepiphyte that starts life in a tree (or, as here, on a cliff). What is surprising is that sometimes shoots grow from the roots. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a leafy branch. The leaves are stiff, ovate, aristate, and very shiny. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Leaf gloss has not received much study from botanists. Why are some leaves glossy & others not? Does gloss have a function? Reflecting excess light? So many questions. An excellent example of ultra-glossy leaves is Garcinia aristata of Cuba & Hispaniola. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a hand holding three open capsules. The fruits open as described. The central “core” has seven grooves in which the orange, gooey seeds rest. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0

Clusia rosea has fruits of 7 united carpels that open when the outer wall of the fruit separates from the septa (walls) between the carpels. It’s a septifragal capsule. Each seed is covered with an orange-red, gooey aril that attracts bird dispersers. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a square dish filled with many fruits. The fruits are dull, purplish brown and have large, persistent calyces. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Photo of a single fruit cut to reveal the thick, leathery, purple rind and the white segments of edible flesh inside. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) is sometimes called the “Queen of Tropical Fruits.” The leathery reddish purple rind encloses sweet-tart, segmented, white flesh & a few seeds. Delicious! They are tropical fruit royalty & deservedly so. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a branch and foliage. Flowers in various stages (from bud to withered) emerge along the stem. The flower has white petals and many stamens (looking like a single, white camellia). Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Photo of a large brown fruit on a plate. The fruit has been cut in half to reveal a thin, orange mesocarp surrounding a cavity filled with a pair of large seeds. Two pieces of the cut-away fruit are on the side of the plate.

Mamey (Mammea americana) has flowers fairly typical for the family. Large, showy, many stamens in fascicles, superior ovary with no style. This tree also produces an edible fruit, much prized in the Caribbean. Fruit 📷: Arria Belli CCBYSA2. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of the slash on the trunk of a tree exuding yellowish, viscous liquid. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Close-up photo of the end of a petiole where it has been pulled from the node. The cut surface of the petiole is exuding yellow liquid. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Clusiaceae have thick, opposite, simple leaves, and–very notably—colorful exudates (variously called resin or latex). 📷1: Trunk slash on Symphonia sp. in Madagascar. 📷2: Yellow exudate from the petiole of Clusia rosea. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of the trunk of a Sabal palm with a young Clusia growing epiphytically on it. The Clusia has thick, fleshy, obovate, opposite leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

This week: Clusiaceae, a tropical family related to Hypericaceae. Clusia rosea occurs in the US, in southern FL, often as a hemiepiphyte, i.e., germinating as an epiphyte (often on Sabal palmetto) but eventually sending roots to the ground. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of the crown of a palm with multiple inflorescences/infructescences at each node. The smaller inflorescences are still enclosed by bracts. The largest are fully expanded and bearing fruits.

In unbranched palms, the axillary buds are inflorescences. A few palms, like this Wettinia praemorsa, make serial inflorescences in each axil, but the buds are collateral (side by side), not superposed. Very unusual. 📷: ProAves Colombia CCBYNCSA2. #Arecaceae #buds #Botany #TropicalBotany 🌾🧪🌱

Side view of a leafy branch. Larger leaves hang downward; smaller leaves are ascending. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 4.0.

POV looking toward the tip of a leafy shoot, showing small ascending leaves and large descending leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 4.0.

I was recently in the Peruvian Andes, where I ran into this plant, a species of Phenax (not sure which one). Note the smaller leaves above the stem & the larger leaves that hang below the stem. #anisophylly #Urticaceae #Botany #TropicalBotany 🌾🧪🌱

This is Anisophyllea disticha (#Anisophylleaceae), which is perfectly described by the scientific name. Note the larger distichous leaves & the tiny leaves appressed to the stems. This tree is from Malesia. 📷: Cerlin Ng CCBYNCSA2 #anisophylly #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of the leafy shoots of a Selaginella. It has two kinds of leaves, those that are spreading and those closely appressed to the stem. This species also has leaves that are silvery and those that are green. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Many species of Selaginella (#Selaginellaceae) have two kinds of leaves (microphylls): Spreading, distichously arranged leaves and a second kind of leaf appressed to the stem. This is Selaginella picta. Classic #anisophylly! #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

People walking among very tall pinnate palms with white trunks.

Ceroxylon quindiuense is such a magnificent sight! Walking among them with my amigos from the International Palm Society was such a treat. #Arecaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Small cluster of red, tubular flowers.

Small cluster of pink, tubular flowers.

Large cluster of red, tubular flowers.

Bomarea species (#Alstroemeriaceae) are climbers among the shrubs at 3000 m elevation at the Kuelap archeological site. I don’t have IDs on them yet. They are hummingbird pollinated. #Botany 🌾🧪🌱 #tropicalbotany

Photo of an erect spike of pinkish purple flowers that have five lobes and throats that are patterned with dark red and white. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

I’ll end this week of oil-rewarding flowers with Angelonia, a genus of nearly 30 spp from the American tropics. All spp have oil-secreting hairs in the throats of their corollas & are pollinated by oil-collecting #bees. It's a popular bedding annual. #Plantaginaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of an iris-like flower with dark blue, yellow and brown patterned standards and pale blue falls. At the base of one of the falls, the area is circled, indicating the location of oil-producing glands. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

Trimezia coerulea from South America is pollinated by oil-collecting #bees. The flowers have oil-secreting trichomes (hairs) – you can see them glistening with oil if you zoom in on the circled area. #oil #bees #pollination #Iridaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱