Abuta

It consists in dioecious climbers or rarely erect treesorshrubs (Abuta concolor) with simple leaves. Flowers in composed panicles. Male flowers: sepals 6, in 2 whorls, petals absent, stamens 6, connate or free, introrse, anthers with a longitudinal or transverse dehiscence. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male, staminodes 6, carpels 3, drupes ovoid, endocarp woody, condyle septiform, endosperm ruminate, embryo curved, cotyledons appressed. It inhabits tropical rain forests.

Abuta is usually classified in the tribe Anomospermeae Miers, together with Anomospermum Miers.

The genera Anelasma Miers and Batschia Thunb. have been brought into synonymy with Abuta.

Abuta is one of the components of the arrow poison curare of some indigenous tribes of South America (especially Abuta imene from Colombia). Roots of Abuta rufescens are used as medicinal in diseases of the urogenital tract, but it is dangerous.^[1]

Species accepted by Plants of the World Online as of March 2024:^[2]

• Diels, L. (1910). "Menispermaceae". In Engler, A. (ed.). Das Pflanzenreich (in Latin and German). Vol. IV.94 (Fasc. 46). Leipzig (Germany): Engelmann. [monographic revision of the genus]
• Barneby, R. C.; Krukoff, B. A. (1971). "Supplementary Notes on American Menispermaceae VIII. A Generic Survey of the American Triclisieae and Anomospermeae". Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden. 22 (2): 30–52. ISBN 978-0-89327-075-9. [taxonomic partial revision]
• Kessler, P. J. A. (1993). Kubitzki, K. (ed.). Flowering plants, dicotyledons : magnoliid, hamamelid, and caryophyllid families. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. 2. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 3-540-55509-9. LCCN 93019190.

• Images of Abuta panamensis from La Flora Digital de La Selva, Costa Rica