Easter Flower

Elsota lamarckii (Griseb.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 46. 1891
Securidaca Lamarckii Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 30. 1859. Securidula Lamarckii Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 769. 1864.
Securidula scandens Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 769, as synonym. 1864. Not Securidaca scandens Jacq. 1760.
High-climbing shrub; branchlets appressedor ascending-pubescent, glabrate; leaves ovate or oval-ovate, 2.7-5.2 cm. long, 1.2-3.4 cm. wide, short-pointed or acute but the apex obtuse, at base broadly rounded, reticulate both sides with 4-6 pairs of lateral veins, above dark-green, somewhat lucid, evenly pubescent or pilose with ascending or spreading hairs, beneath paler, more densely pubescent, the hairs along the costa always spreading; petioles 1.2-2.5 mm. long; peduncles 5-9 mm. long; racemes rather loose, sometimes branched at base, 0.8-7 cm. long; bracts lanceolate, deciduous, 1mm. long; pedicels densely incurved-pubescent, 5-6 mm. long; flowers rosy; sepals oval to suborbicular, ciliate and pubescent on midline, 2-3.2 mm. long; wings suborbicular-oval, emarginate, 8-8.2 mm. long, 6.2-7.8 mm. wide, ciliate or ciliolate except on claw, 1 01 2-nerved ; keel ciliolate and somewhat pubescent within toward base of saccate portion, 6.S-8.2 mm. long; immature samara 2.4—3.7 cm. long, shortly spreading-pubescent; stipe obsolete; fruiting cell reticulate, narrowly wing-margined on upper, side, 5 mm. long, the margin obliquely decurrent into the proper wing or sometimes prolonged into a short triangular lobe, extending 2 mm. beyond fruiting cell; wing obovate, 2-3 cm. long, 2.5-3 mm. wide at base, 7-10 mm. wide near middle.
Type locality: Not definitely stated.
Distribution: Cuba; reported from Jamaica, St. Vincent, and Martinique.

Elsota diversifolia (L.) Blake
Polygala diversifolia L. Sp. PI. 703. 1753.
Securidaca erecta Jacq. Enum. PI. Carib. 27. 1760.
Securidaca acuminata Schlecht. Linnaea 14: 382. 1840. Not 5. acuminata St.-Hil. 1829.
Securidaca Schlechtendaliana Walp. Rep. 1: 246. 1842.
Securidaca macroslachya Turcz. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 36 1 : 560. 1863.
Securidula erecta Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 769. 1864.
Securidula volubilis Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 770, as synonym. 1864. Not Securidaca volubihs L.
1753. Elsota Schlechtendaliana Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 46. 1891. ?Securidaca myrtifolia Chod. Bull. Herb. Boiss. 3: 546. 1893. Securidaca diversifolia Blake, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 23: 594. 1923.
Trailing or high-climbing shrub, the stem 2.5 cm. thick below; branches strigillose or ascending-puberulous, subglabrate; leaves from elliptic-oblong or oblong-ovate to broadly ovate or oval, 3.S-12 cm. long, 2.2-5.7 cm. wide, obtuse to subacuminate, at base rounded to euneate, pergamentaceous or chartaeeous, thickish or rarely thinnish, above deep-green, somewhat lucid, strigillose or puberulous, reticulate with 6-10 pairs of lateral veins, even the tertiary veins prominulous, beneath paler green or glaucescent, similarly pubescent, the hairs along the eosta usually spreading; leaves of the flowering branchlets much smaller and usually oval; petioles strigillose or puberulous, 2-7 mm. long; peduncles 4-10 mm. long; racemes rather loose, rarely branched, the axis densely strigillose or incurved-puberulous, usually 6-14 cm. long; bracts lanceolate to ovate, acuminate, deciduous or rarely persistent, 1.5-7 mm. long; pedicels strigillose, 4-7 mm. long; flowers pink to purplish, the keel with more or less yellow; sepals broadly oval, ciliate, pubescent along midline, 2.5-3.8 mm. long; wings suborbicular to oval-ovate, emarginate, ciliate to middle except on the short claw, 8.3-11.8 mm. long, 6-8 mm. wide; keel 8-8.8 mm. long; samara greenish or straw-color, puberulous, 4-6 cm. long; fruiting cell plump, elevated-reticulate, 5-8 mm. long, wing-margined on upper side, the margin 1-2.5 mm. wide, prolonged beyond the fruiting cell and connate with the proper wing, usually with a triangular free tooth at apex; wing obovate, narrower at base than fruiting cell, 3.2-5 cm. long, 3-4 mm. wide at base (excluding the connate upper wing-margin of fruiting cell), 1 1-17 mm. wide near middle.
Type locality: Tropical America.
Distribution: Tamaulipas and Michoacan (or Guerrero) to Ecuador; Lesser Antilles, from St. Thomas and St. Croix to South America.