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Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
from the November 21, 2010 Newsletter issued from Hacienda Chichen Resort beside Chichén Itzá Ruins, central Yucatán, MÉXICO; limestone bedrock, elevation ~39m (~128ft), ~N20.676°, ~W88.569°
JACQUEMONTIA SPHAEROSTIGMA
One of the most abundant species nowadays forming thick blankets of mutually entangling, blue-flowered vines mantling bushes and low trees is shown above. That's a tiny part of a mass covering an area larger than most gringo lawns, and it's hard to see how the shrubs and trees below them get enough light to stay alive. It was impressive.
Above, the two-lobed stigma of Jacquemontia species is evident.
*UPDATE: Earlier, based on its densely long-hairy sepals, bracts and stems, I thought that this was Jacquemontia tamnifolia, widely distributed throughout much of the world's tropics. However, in 2024 when the above pictures were uploaded to the iNaturalist website, user "alexiz," who specializes in Mexican members of the Morning-glory Family, recognized that we had a hairy expression of JACQUEMONIA SPHAEROSTIGMA, widely distributed in the American tropics but seldom documented in Mexico. In 2024 this appears to be the only iNaturalist observation made of it in the Yucatan.