Lianas, the branchlets sharply hexagonal with ribbed angles, without interpetiolar glandular fields, the indumentum at least in part of dendroid trichomes; pseudostipules foliaceous but often early deciduous. Leaves 2- or 3-foliolate; terminal leaflet frequently replaced by a trifid tendril. Inflorescence a narrow terminal panicle, typically terminal on a short lateral branch. Calyx campanulate, with a double margin, the outer margin thin and undulate, the inner margin thick; corolla magenta at maturity, thick, tubular, bilabiately split to near middle, but the lobes remaining loosely appressed at anthesis, glabrous or slightly puberulous outside. Anthers glabrous, the thecae thick, divaricate. Ovary ovate-cylindric; ovules multiseriate in each locule. Fruit an oblong-elliptic capsule, the valves parallel to septum, ± flattened, woody, smooth to tuberculate. Seeds thin, puberulous, the wings tan at base, the apices hyaline.
Mexico, Central America, Antilles, northern South America to northern Argentina; 5 species, 3 in Venezuela, 2 of these in the flora area.
1. Pseudostipules persistent and conspicuous; vegetative parts densely pubescent, in part with 1-2 mm-long, few-branched trichomes ..... A. aschersonii
1. Pseudostipules early caducous; vegetative parts lepidote to variously stellate- pubescent, with shorter, mostly dendroid trichomes ..... A. paniculatum
Amphilophium aschersonii Ule in Urb. & P. Graebn., Festschr. Ascherson 549. 1904.
Woody liana. Evergreen lowland to montane forests, 100-1300 m; Bolívar (Río Icabarú basin), Amazonas (Puerto Ayacucho, Río Mawarinuma, Sierra de la Neblina). Barinas, Táchira; Amazonian Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Fig. 353.
Amphilophium paniculatum (L.) H.B.K., Nov. Gen. Sp. (quarto ed.) 3: 149. 1818 [1819]. -Bignonia paniculata L., Sp. Pl. 623. 1753.
Liana. Deciduous and evergreen lowland to montane forests. Widespread from Mexico and the Antilles to Argentina; 4 varieties, all in Venezuela, 3 of these in the flora area.
1. Capsule rugose-muricate ..... var. imatacense
1. Capsule smooth ..... 2
2. Lower surface of leaf densely and uniformly dendroid-pubescent ..... var. molle
2. Lower surface of leaf sparsely stellate or dendroid-puberulous, often restricted to vein axils ..... var. paniculatum
A. paniculatum var. imatacense A.H. Gentry, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 63: 49. 1976.
50-300 m; Delta Amacuro (Serranía de Imataca), northern Bolívar. Adjacent Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil (Mato Grosso, Pará).
A. paniculatum var. molle (Schltdl. & Cham.) Standl., Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 18: 114. 1938. -Amphilophium molle Schltdl. & Cham., Linnaea 5: 120. 1830.
Ca. 1200 m; Bolívar (Gran Sabana). Aragua, Distrito Federal, Falcón, Táchira; Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Amazonian Brazil, Bolivia.
A. paniculatum var. paniculatum
50-500 m; north-central Bolívar. Widespread elsewhere in Venezuela; other distribution as for species.