Accession Data:
Urera baccifera (L.) Gaudich. ex Wedd.
- Common Name: Scratchbush
- Family: Urticaceae Juss.
- 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
- Culture: This plant grows in moist tropical forests. It is not very tolerant of shade, so it dies back when the overstory closes.
Accession Data:
- Accession # 201600152
- Source: Ernesto Sandoval - UC Davis
- Accession Date: 10-13-2016
- Bench: 1315 - NEOA: East Bench SS
- Currently: active - healthy
- Qty: 3 confirmed on 02-20-2023
- Restrictions:
- Poisonous Plant Parts - Not for Human Consumption
Stinging hairs - handle with caution.
- Poisonous Plant Parts - Not for Human Consumption
Classification:
- Division: Magnoliophyta
- Class: Magnoliopsida
- SubClass: eurosid I
- Order: Rosales
- SubOrder:
- Family: Urticaceae
- SubFamily:
- Tribe: Urticeae
- SubTribe:
Flowering Data:
This accession has been observed in bloom on:| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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References (internal):
- Medicinal Plants
- Dioecious species in the EEB Greenhouse Collection
- AntU - Learning from the Complex Society of Army Ants & Their Guests
- ECE 2019 - Scavenger Hunt
- EEB Greenhouse Holdings native to: Mexico Central / Mexico Northeast / Mexico Gulf / Mexico Northwest / Mexico Southwest / Mexico Southeast / Belize / Costa Rica / El Salvador / Guatemala / Nicaragua / Panama / Cuba / Dominican Republic / Haiti / Jamaica / Puerto Rico / Leeward Is. / Trinidad-Tobago / Windward Is. / French Guiana / Guyana / Suriname / Venezuela / Bolivia / Colombia / Ecuador / Peru / Brazil West-Central / Brazil Northeast / Brazil Southeast / Brazil North / Brazil South / Argentina Northeast / Argentina Northwest / Paraguay
References (external):
- 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.
data regenerated on Mon, 20 Feb 2023 14:27:08 -0500 [bcm v4.0]
Images:
Additional images for this accession:
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Current Accessions in the Urticaceae
Subfamily
Tribe Boehmerieae
Subfamily
Tribe Cecropieae
Subfamily
Tribe Lecantheae
- Pellionia repens
- Pilea cadierei
- Pilea depressa
- Pilea nummulariifolia
- Pilea peperomioides
- Procris unidentified
Subfamily
Tribe Parietarieae
Subfamily
Tribe Urticeae
W/C = Wild Collected
= indicates flowering in past 14 days
= images available for this accession
= map available for this accession
= accession added within past 90 days