396 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



Verbesina nodiflora L. Same as Synedrella nodiflora. 



Verdolaga (Spanish). Purslane. See Portulaca oleracea. 



Verdolaga de Costa (Spanish, Cuba). Sea purslane. See Sesuvium portulacastrum. 



Verdura (Spanish). 



The general name for greens or pot-herbs; in Guam called "golae." 

 Vernonia cinerea. Gray ironweed. 



Family Asteraceae. 

 A pubescent annual composite with small rayless heads of pinkish-violet flowers. 

 Stem 15 to 60 cm. high, erect, stiff, cylindrical, grooved and ribbed, sometimes hoary- 

 pubescent, slightly branched; leaves distant, the lowest 5 cm. long but gradually 

 smaller upwards, broadly oval to linear-lanceolate, tapering to base, subobtuse, 

 apiculate, coarsely and shallowly crenate-serrate, more or less hairy on both sides; 

 petiole 6 to 18 mm. long; heads of flowers small on long stalks, in lax divaricate ter- 

 minal corymbs; involucre bracts linear, mucronate, silky, flowers 20 to 25 ; achene 

 not ribbed, hairy; pappus white, outer row very short. 



A common weed in waste places and on abandoned clearings, flowering all the 

 year. Widely spread throughout the Tropics. It varies according to conditions of 

 light, moisture, and character of soil. 

 References: 



Vernonia cinerea (L. ) Less. Linnfea 4: 291. 1829. 

 Conyza cinerea L. Sp. PI. 2: 862. 1753. 

 Vernonia parviflora Reinw. Same as Vernonia cinerea. 



Vernonia villosa. "Woolly ironweed. 



A puberulous or woolly composite with rayless heads of flowers 8 mm. in dia- 

 meter. Branches slender-cylindrical; leaves sessile or petioled, ovate, elliptic, or 

 elliptic-lanceolate, subserrate; heads 20 to 30-flowered, scattered or binate or ternate; 

 involucre bracts pubescent, lanceolate, mucronate; achenes 4 or 5-ribbed, glabrous, 

 glandular; pappus white. 



This species was collected in Guam by Haenke and afterwards by Chamisso. It 

 is widely distributed in the Tropics, occurring in southern Asia, the Philippines, and 

 on several islands of Polynesia. 

 References: 



Vernonia villosa (Blume). 



Conyza chinensis Lam. Encyc. 2: 83. 1786, not L. Sp. PL 2: 862. 1753. 

 Centratherum chinense Less. Linnsea 4: 320. 1829. 

 Vernonia chinensis Less. Linmea 6: 105, 674. 1831. 

 CyanthiUium vUlosum Blume, Bijdr. 889. 1826. 

 Via (Fiji Islands). See Alocasia indica. 



Vigna sinensis. Chinese asparagus bean. 



Family Fabaceae. 



Local names. — Si'tao (Philippines); Twining cowpea (United States). 

 A twining variety of the well-known "cowpea," bearing long slender legumes 

 which the natives eat as a vegetable. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, stipules large, 

 attached above the base; leaflets membranous, ovate-rhomboidal, entire or slightly 

 lobed, terminal leaflet 5 to 15 cm. long, long-stalked; racemes axillary, few-flowered, 

 long-peduncled; calyx campanulate; corolla much exserted; keel truncate; stamens 

 diadelphous; anthers uniform; pod very long, many-seeded. 



Commonly cultivated in the gardens of Guam, trailing along the fences of incis- 

 ures. Flowers large, white or pale purple. 

 References: 



Vigna sinensis (Stickman) Endl.; Hassk. PI. Jav. Rar. 386.1848. 

 Dolichos sinensis Stickman, Herb. Amb. 1754; Amoen. Acad. 4: 132. 1759; L. 

 Cent. PL 2: 28.1756. 



