Dieffenbachia seguine (Jacq.) Schott

Araceae, S.J. Mayo. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1985

Morphology General Habit

Erect to decumbent herb with fleshy green stem to 1 m. tall bearing annular scars.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves ± rosulate near stem-apex; blade ovate to oblong-ovate, up to 40 cm. long, 15 cm. broad, green, usually variegated with spots and blotches of white or yellow, acuminate, base cuneate to subcordate; petiole usually shorter than blade, green or white-spotted.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescence pendent in fruit, peduncle shorter than spathe.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Bracts Spathe

Spathe up to 20 cm. long, green.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Spadix

Spadix adnate on one side to spathe except for free, partially exserted, apical staminate part; sterile appendix lacking.

sex Female

Pistillate flowers each with whorl of 4–5 clavate white staminodes.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers unisexual, lacking tepals. Pistillate flowers each with whorl of 4–5 clavate white staminodes.

Distribution

Native of tropical America and West Indies (‘Dumb cane’). Widely cultivated throughout the world as an ornamental plantmany cultivars exist with different leaf variegationsthe sap is strongly irritant and vesicant.

Distribution

Biogeografic region: Amazonia, Andean, Caribbean. Elevation range: 213–2600 m a.s.l. Cultivated in Colombia. Native to Colombia. Colombian departments: Bogotá DC, Caquetá, Cundinamarca, Magdalena, Meta, Valle del Cauca, Vaupés, Vichada.

Habit

Herb.

Ecology

Habitat according IUCN Habitats Classification: forest and woodland, savanna, shrubland, native grassland, wetlands (inland), artificial - terrestrial.

CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011. araceae.e-monocot.org

General Description

Herb, to 1.5 m tall;s temsr eclining at baset hen erect; internodes 1.7-5 x 1.5-4.0 cm, medium green and glossy soon becoming dark green, semiglossy to almost matte, smooth. LEAVES arching; petioles 10-34.5 cm long, averaging 29.7 cm long, medium green and weakly glossy, rarely white, sometimes densely pale green maculate, sheathed 2/3_85 or more their length, free part of petiole 5-7 cm long, acutely sulcate; sheath 20-28 long, pale green and matte on inside, usually acute on one side, rounded on the other side, sometimes inequilaterally acute on both sides, curved inward along the margins but the sides not contacting, faintly striate throughout but especially noticeable toward the base, the basal portion of the sheath often persisting after much of the petiole falls free; blades ovate-lanceolate, 17-38.5 cm long, 10-20 cm wide (averaging3 2.1 x 17.3 cm), 2.7-3.3 times longer than wide, 1.2-1.6 times longer than petioles, inequilateral, one side 1.5 cm broader, inequilaterally rounded at base or with one side acute the other rounded, subcoriaceous, semiglossy, medium-dark green, sometimes mottled with pale green or white, especially along midrib, moderately paler below; midrib flattened-convex and slightly paler, ca. 6 mm wide above, narrowly rounded and slightly paler below, sometimes darker green-maculate in lower half; primary lateral veins 13 to 15(19) per side, arising to 40°-50° angle, quilted-sunken and con-colorous above, concolorous and concave below; in-terprimarly veins usually present and nearly as conspicuous; as primary lateral veins; minor veins moderately in distinct, arising from the midrib and paralleling the primary lateral veins. I1NFLORESCENCES 1 to 4 per axil, usually solid green but sometimes pale greenish yellow maculate through-out (maculations sometimes appearing in irregular transverse rows on spathe); peduncles 2.5-14 cm long, 7-X x 8-12 mm diam., medium green, weakly glossy, faintly dark green-striate; spathe 11-24 cm long, abruptly acuminate at apex, gradually constricted above tube, in the upper 2/3, medium-dark green and semiglossy to matte outside, slightly paler and glossy within; spathe blade at anthesis stiffly erect then recurving near apex; spathe tube 7-10 cm long, 1.2-1.8 x 2.0-2.5 cm diam.; spadix 10-19 cm long; the naked portion at base 1.5-2.5 cm long; pistillate portion of spadix 4-8.5 cm long; pistils 20 to 25, closely aggregated except in upper 10-12 mm, with up to 3 of them in a loose spiral across the spadix but usually with 1 or 2 at any level on the spadix; ovary bicarpellate, markedly bilobate, rarely 3- or 4-locular (and 3- to 4-lobate, respectively), pale green, semiglossy, 3.2-3.6 x 2.1-2.4 mm; stigmas pale orange, doubled (one for each locule) but usually fused along the adjoining margins, 2.3-4.3 x 2.0-2.4 mm diam.; staminodia 4 per pistil, 2.8-3.1 mm long, 0.8-1.0 mm wide at apex, slightly thickened toward apex, flattened and free at base, the base equally as wide or up to twice as wide as the apex; fertile staminate portion of spadix 5-7.5 cm long, 5-15 mm diam., slightly broader midway, taperings lightly toward both ends, bluntly acute to rounded at apex, at anthesis protruding forward out of spathe and usually being trapped there by the closing spathe; staminate flowers 5 to 6(8?) per spiral, (1.6)2.2-3.5(4) mm diam., squarely rounded to rounded, sometimes broadest perpendicular to the axis, smoothly rounded at apex, sometimes with a transverse linear slit medially; anthers 5 to 6 per synandrium, shedding their pollen well below the rim of the synandrium; the mostly naked portion of spadix2 .0-4.0 cm long, 6-8 mm diam., medium green with 1 pistil in lower 1/3 and with 2 to 3 staminodes in upper1 /2, sometimes with only a few staminodia scattered in upper 3/4. Berries bright red or orange.

Phenology

Dieffenbachia seguine flowers and develops mature fruit to some extent all year-round, but with more flowering occurring in the late dry season and throughout the early part of the dry season between March and September.

Distribution

Dieffenbachia seguine ranges throughout much of the West Indies from Cuba (Ileana Arias, Havana, pers. comm.), Jamaica , Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico , through the Lesser Antilles to'Irinidad and South Ameriea , there ranging throughout much of Venezuela ( Amazonas, Aragua, Apure, Bolivar, Carabobo, Delta Amacuro, Distrito Federal, Falcon, 1ara, Miranda, Monagas, Nueva Esparta, Portuguesa, Sucre, Tachira, Trujillo, Yaracuy, Zulia), espeially in the Cordillera de 1a Costa, to Guyana and Suriname (Boggen et al., 1992), French Guiana, eastern Brazil (Amapa, Amazonas, Goias, Maranhao, Para, Rondonia Sao Paulo), and west to the lowlands of Colombia (Meta, Vaupes, Vichada), eastern Ecuador (Napo), and Bolivia (Pando, Santa Cruz).

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident

Bernal, R., G. Galeano, A. Rodríguez, H. Sarmiento y M. Gutiérrez. 2017. Nombres Comunes de las Plantas de Colombia. http://www.biovirtual.unal.edu.co/nombrescomunes/

Vernacular

ajo de monte, caña cimarrona, caña de puente, caña muda, carateja, chicapoy, chucha, chula, chulo, col del diablo, cucarachero, cucaracho, gota de aceite, jaspe, manjó, mármol, nieve tropical, pentagrama, picatón, rascaor, rocío, saíno, wáshington, wásington

Vernacular

Calla, Caña muda, Cucaracho