Accession Data
Urera baccifera
Common Name: Scratchbush
Family: Urticaceae
Country of Origin: American tropics and into the subtropics
Description: Urera baccifera is a thin-stemmed nettle distributed from Mexico to Brazil, and is normally found in secondary environments. The plant starts to abscise its leaves during the fruiting season (early April to late June), sprouting again in August.3
Ants also forage intensively on vegetative individuals of U. baccifera in search of pearl bodies, which are found on stems, leaves and stalks of flowers and fruits. Plants accumulate thousands of pearl bodies that are promptly removed by foraging ants, or are easily detached from the plant. Water and carbohydrates are the main constituents of the pearl bodies of U. baccifera; no lipids or proteins were detected.3
Accession Data
Accession #: 201600152
Accession Date: 2016-10-13 00:00:00
Bloom Status: 🪴 Not Flowering
Location: 1315
Quantity: 3
Source: Ernesto Sandoval - UC Davis
Culture: This plant grows in moist tropical forests. It is not very tolerant of shade, so it dies back when the overstory closes.
Classification
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Subclass: eurosid I
Order: Rosales
Family: Urticaceae
Tribe: Urticeae
Flowering Data:
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References
- The Plant List (2013). Version 1.1. Last accessed on Thursday, October 13, 2016.
- Urera baccifera at Wikipedia. Last accessed on Thursday, October 13, 2016.
- Dutra, H. P., et al. (2006). Dual ant attraction in the Neotropical shrub Urera baccifera (Urticaceae): the role of ant visitation to pearl bodies and fruits in herbivore deterrence and leaf longevity. Functional Ecology 20 252-60. Last accessed on Thursday, October 13, 2016.
- Urera baccifera at Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Last accessed on Monday, June 05, 2017.
- Image #00 (cropped) and #01 (original) by Alexey Yakovlev (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons. Last accessed on Friday, July 21, 2017.
Images
