B. mabberleyana

Culture

Endangered Status

Critically endangered (CR B1ab(iii), B2ab(iii).

Original Botanical Description or Link to

Perennial, monoecious herb, up to c. 80 cm tall; stems erect, with microscopic glandular hairs and a sparse indumentum of multicellular, bristly hairs to c. 0.5 mm long. Stem branched, internodes 2–8 cm long, greenish or brownish-reddish. Leaves alternate; stipules caducous, 6–9 × 3–5 mm, ovate to elliptic, acuminate, apex narrowed into bristle up to 2 mm long, greenish, glabrous; petioles 0.1–1 cm long, greenish or reddish, sparsely hairy; lamina basifixed, 7–15 × 3.3–10 cm, asymmetric, obovate, base asymmetrically cuneate, convex or cordate (lobes not overlapping), apex acute, margin coarsely dentate to serrate and sometimes shallowly lobed in the distal lamina half, the teeth not bristle-pointed, adaxial surface green with red to green veins, sometimes variegated with white dots between the veins, glabrous or sometimes sparsely bristly between and on the veins, abaxial surface pale green and with red veins, sparsely hairy on the veins; venation pinnate, with 3–5 secondary veins on each side, these craspedodromus. Inflorescences protogynous; female flowers solitary, usually one node basal to male inflorescences or sometimes separate, peduncles to c. 1 mm long; male inflorescences racemose-cymose, composed of several cymose partial inflorescences each branching dichasially in the basal part and monochasially in the more distal part, or purely monochasially, each with several to numerous flowers; peduncles to 3 cm long; bracts minute, caducous. Male flowers: pedicels 2–5 mm long, greenish, whitish-greenish, or white tinged with pink, glabrous; tepals 2, white, whitish-greenish, white tinged with pink or pinkish, ovate to suborbicular, 3–7 × 3–7mm, margin entire, apex rounded, glabrous; androecium of c. 23–27 stamens, yellow, filaments c. 0.5 mm long, slightly fused at the very base, anthers to c. 1 mm long, oblong or narrowly obovate, dehiscing through unilaterally positioned slits c. 1/2 as long as the anthers. Female flowers: pedicels 3–5 mm long, greenish, glabrous; tepals 5, whitish-greenish, subequal, 3–7 × 3–5 mm, ovate to elliptic, glabrous; ovary ellipsoid, 6.5–7 × 3–5 mm (excluding the wings), pale green, glabrous, locules 3, placentation axile, placentae bilamellate, wings 3, equal, base rounded, apex subtruncate to truncate, style c. 4 mm long, basally fused, 3-branched, each stylodium bifurcate in the stigmatic region, stigmatic surface a spirally twisted papillose band, yellowish to orange. Fruits: pedicels 6–7 mm long, curved downwards at apex; seed-bearing part ellipsoid, 8–12 × 4–7 mm (excluding the wings), glabrous, dehiscent, splitting along the wing attachment, wing shape as for ovary, up to 10 mm at the widest point (apically to subapically). Seeds barrel-shaped, c. 0.2–0.3 mm long.