Adelia barbinervis is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae that is native to southern Mexico and northern Central America. The Huastec Maya cultivated the plant as a famine food.
Adelia barbinervis is a shrub, or as a tree[1] that grows to be 2-9 meters tall.[2] The bark is spinescent, thin, and gray to whitish.[2] [3]
The leaves grow with an alternate (spiral) pattern.[4] The upper side is dark green and hairless while the underside is paler and pubescent (covered with short, soft hairs) along the veins.[2] Rarely, the underside of the leaf is tomentose, i.e. densely covered in short, matted hairs. The leaves have 5-7 lateral veins. The axils of the veins have tufts of hair called domatia.[2] The leaves are lanceolate (pointy at both ends) with a length of 4-9 cm and a width of 2-3.5 cm. The margins are entire. The leaves are connected to their twig by a 2-5 mm petiole, which is pubescent. The inconspicuous stipules at the base of the petiole are pubescent and, like the leaves, lanceolate.[5]
Plants flower from November to January.[2] The species is dioecious: male and female flowers are not found on the same plant. Flowers grow from the axils of the leaves.[5] The male flowers grow in cymose fascicles of 10-30 flowers. The male pedicels are pubescent and just 3.5-7 mm long. Male flowers have 3-5 greenish or whitish ovate sepals, which are about 2 mm long and pubescent on both sides. Male flowers have 8-12 whitish stamens, each with 2-mm filaments and globose anthers, that are joined at the base. The female flowers have longer pedicels, 15-30 mm long. Female flowers have 5-7 green, linear-lanceolate sepals 2-3 mm long, the upper surfaces of which are puberulent. The ovary is tomentose.[2] [5] The three[2] yellow or white[6] 1.5- to 2-mm styles are flat and widened, joined at the base, and have lacerate (jagged) edges at the apex.[2] [5]
The species produces fruit from January to April.[2] The fruit is a green, pubescent, three-lobed capsule 1.1 mm in diameter[2] that dehisces when dry.[7] The smooth, pale seeds inside are 3.5-4.5 mm long and subglobose.[5]
Adelia barbinervis was first described by Cham. & Schltdl. and was published in Linnaea 6: 362 in 1831.[1] Ricinella barbinervis (Cham. & Schltdl.) Müll.Arg., published in Linnaea 34: 154 (1865), is a homotypic synonym of Adelia barbinervis.[1]
The specific epithet barbinervis means “bearded veins”[8] and refers to the leaves’ domatia.[2]
Adelia barbinervis is closely related to A. triloba.[5]
Adelia barbinervis is native to seasonally dry climates from Mexico to Nicaragua,[1] where it is found in tropical rainforests,[5] tropical deciduous forests, and secondary forests[2] at elevations of 0-500m. It is common in milpa regrowth ecosystems.
The Huastec Maya cultivated the plant as a famine food, cooking the shoots and tender leaves as greens. The wood is used as firewood.[2]