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Urera caracasana (Jacq.) Gaudich. ex Griseb.

Flameberry (en)

Species

Angiosperms > Rosales > Urticaceae > Urera

Characteristics

Shrub or tree up to 5(-10) m tall. Branchlets 3-10 mm thick, appressed-puberulous to strigose, without prickles but often with stinging hairs. Stipules 0.5-1.5 cm long, puberulous, persistent; petiole 2.5-25 cm long, hirtellous to strigillose; blade entire, chartaceous, broadly to narrowly ovate, (3-)12-36 x (2.5-)8-26 cm, apex acuminate, base cordate to obtuse, margin crenate to dentate-crenate, scabridulous to scabrous, hispidulous to hirtellous above, strig(ill)ose to hirtellous beneath; secondary veins 5-9 pairs. Inflorescences in the leaf axils or below the leaves, up to ca. 20 cm long, often with stinging hairs; flowers in (sub)capitate glomerules or solitary, (sub)sessile or pedicellate respectively. Staminate flowers: tepals 4(-5), ca. 1 mm long; stamens 4(-5). Pistillate flowers: tepals almost free, unequal, ca. 0.5 mm long. Achene lens-shaped, ca. 1-1.5 mm long; fruiting perianth white.
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Shrub or small tree, 2-10 m. high, with elongate branches, the young twigs, petioles, inflorescence, and leaf nerves usually armed with stinging hairs; leaves broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, up to 30 cm. long and 25 cm. wide, acuminate, cordate or cordulate at the base (basal lobes sometimes overlapping), crenate-dentate, scabrous, sometimes verrucose, above, more or less pubescent beneath; plants dioecious, the cymes regularly dichotomous; staminate flowers sessile in distinct, compact glomerules; pistillate flowers sessile or pedicillate in compact glomerules (rachis and segments sometimes becoming enlarged), the segments usually densely covered with white, punctiform cystoliths; achenes 0.5-1 mm. long.
A small tree.
Life form perennial
Growth form tree
Growth support -
Foliage retention deciduous
Sexuality dioecy
Pollination -
Spread -
Mature width (meter) -
Mature height (meter) 5.0
Root system -
Rooting depth (meter) -
Root diameter (meter) -
Flower color -
Blooming months -
Fruit color -
Fruiting months -
Nitrogen fixer -
Photosynthetic pathway c3

Environment

Common in moist or wet thickets or often in dense mixed forest, often abundant in secondary growth, it is also much planted for hedges; found at elevations from 900-2,900 metres.
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It is a tropical plant. In Argentina it grows from sea level to 2,000 m above sea level.
Light -
Soil humidity -
Soil texture -
Soil acidity -
Soil nutriment -
Hardiness (USDA) 9-12

Usage

The leaves are eaten in salads.
Uses fiber hedge medicinal wood
Edible fruits leaves
Therapeutic use Poison-Ivy (unspecified), Syphilis (unspecified), Cancer(Brain) (unspecified)
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Can be grown by seedlings.
Mode seedlings
Germination duration (days) -
Germination temperacture (C°) -
Germination luminosity -
Germination treatment -
Minimum temperature (C°) -
Optimum temperature (C°) -
Size -
Vigor -
Productivity -

Images

Leaf

Urera caracasana leaf picture by Roshan Tailor (cc-by-sa)
Urera caracasana leaf picture by Nelson Zamora Villalobos (cc-by-nc)
Urera caracasana leaf picture by Naomi Velásquez (cc-by-sa)

Flower

Urera caracasana flower picture by Nelson Zamora Villalobos (cc-by-nc)
Urera caracasana flower picture by Nelson Zamora Villalobos (cc-by-nc)
Urera caracasana flower picture by Naomi Velásquez (cc-by-sa)

Fruit

Urera caracasana fruit picture by Roshan Tailor (cc-by-sa)
Urera caracasana fruit picture by Nelson Zamora Villalobos (cc-by-nc)
Urera caracasana fruit picture by Nelson Zamora Villalobos (cc-by-nc)

Distribution

Urera caracasana world distribution map, present in Argentina, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, French Guiana, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Mexico, Montserrat, Martinique, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, El Salvador, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

Conservation status

Urera caracasana threat status: Least Concern

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:856982-1
WFO ID wfo-0000416547
COL ID 7DST5
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID 630854
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Urera magna Urera alceifolia Urera densiflora Urera jacquinii Urtica caracasana Urera alceifolia Urtica mitis Urera subpeltata Urera corallina Urera mitis Urtica tiliifolia Urtica corallina Urtica ulmifolia Urtica alceifolia Urera caracasana var. mitis Urera subpeltata var. morifolia Urera jacquinii var. subpeltata Urera jacquinii var. miquelii Urera caracasana var. subpeltata Urera caracasana var. miquelii Urera capitata var. pavonii Urera caracasana var. tomentosa Urera jacquinii var. ulmifolia Urera jacquinii var. corallina Urera jacquinii var. tomentosa Urera caracasana
WorldFloraDB 2024