Una de Gato

Botanical description:

It is a large climbing or creeping vine over 40 m long. It can be 20 m high and reach around 20 cm of diameter. Its bark is brown, with longitudinal fissures and persistent rhytidome. The internal part has a slightly dusty fibrous and laminar texture: a characteristic ferruginous dust. It has flowing-consistency watery secretions and extremely astringent taste. Moreover, it has quadrangular section terminal branches, with yellowish green internal medulla, glabra and small lance-shaped leaves. The older branches have a couple of curved-straight thorns, not twisted and sharp-pointed, with woody consistency, about 8 to 20 mm long and 3 to 6 mm wide. Its leaves are simple, opposite and distichous, oblong, oblong-ovate or elliptical-vaulted, 7,5 to 17 cm long and 4,3 to 12 cm wide, with the entire border slightly sinuate, with rarely acuminate acute apex, round and/or cordate base and membranous consistency; with oblique pinnate venation and secondary veins having eight to ten pairs. The petiole is 8 to 28 mm long and 1,2 to 2,5 mm wide, it is dark green on the face and pale green on the back. In this zone, there are tiny fine woolly hairs called tomentum -from which derives the name tomentosa- being dense and closely matted in all its extension. In other occasions, they only appear in the veins or nervation of the back. It also has deltoid-shaped inter-petiole stipules which are about 6 to 12 mm long and 4 to 8 mm wide.