| from the February 28, 2010 Newsletter issued from
Hacienda Chichen Resort beside Chichén Itzá Ruins, central Yucatán, MÉXICO ANGLEPOD FRUIT Hiking to Pisté to buy fruit, the moment I saw a certain thing hanging in a tree beside the road I knew I'd be writing to my old friend Ulli at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. Ulli happens to be one of the world's leading experts in a particular section of the Milkweed Family, and the thing hanging in the tree was a four-inch-long (10 cm) fruit of a twining vine in his group. You can see the interestingly four-winged pod below:
In the southeastern US similar pods are produced by a halfway uncommon Milkweed-Family vine called the Eastern Anglepod, Gonolobus suberosus, but that species doesn't occur in Mexico. By the next day I'd sent Ulli the picture and he'd replied, saying that he instantly thought that it was the genus Macroscepis, and he noted that in the list I'd sent him, of species in the Milkweed Family found in the adjacent state of Quintana Roo, MACROSCEPIS DIADEMATA is noted. Therefore, we're guessing that that's what our plant is. I think that the genus Macroscepis fairly recently has been split from the much larger genus Gonolobus. Ulli asked for seeds, for he grows the plants he studies in greenhouses at the University, doing genetic sequencing on them. He says that this is a very interesting genus, and that the only representative he has of it is remarkable because its flowers produce nectar that changes from clear to black! He further says that black nectar occurs in scattered species in the family, but nobody knows why. So, here we have something little know, something that simply by posting a picture of it and saying that in February the pod was found in central Yucatán, we're contributing information that someday somebody will be glad to have. And if I can get seeds to Ulli, maybe someday he'll publish something about it himself. Makes me feel good. |
