Clerodendrum fragrans Vent.

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

  • Family

    Verbenaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Clerodendrum fragrans Vent.

  • Description

    Species Description - Planted for ornament, especially in cemetaries, whence the Spanish name, this broad-leaved, half-shrubby plant with clustered, white flowers has escaped from cultivation and is occasional along roads and in waste grounds in Porto Rico, as also nearly throughout the West Indies, extending to Florida and Bermuda, almost always, however, only the race with double flowers. The plant is native in the Old World tropics. Another Spanish name is Jasmin prieto. It is the only species of its genus growing wild in Porto Rico; several others are occasionally cultivated for ornament. Clerodendrum (Greek, tree of fortune) is a genus accepted by Linnaeus from writings of his predecessors; it includes 100, or more species of shrubs, perennial herbs, or vines, with opposite leaves, and large flowers in terminal and axillary clusters. The calyx is 5-toothed, or 5-lobed; the limb of the corolla is 5-lobed, and there are 4, somewhat unequal stamens; the ovary is 4-celled, the stigma 2-lobed. The fleshy fruit contains 4 nutlets, each 1-seeded. Clerodendrum fragrans (fragrant) is densely short-hairy, from 0.6 to 1.5 meters high, with stout, angled branches. The broadly ovate, long-stalked, pointed leaves are from 10 to 20 centimeters long, coarsely toothed or sometimes without teeth. The fragrant, white flowers form dense, broad, terminal clusters; the lobes of the calyx lance-shaped, and pointed, the corolla about 2.5 centimeters long, its lobes rounded.

  • Discussion

    Flor de muerto Wild Jessamine Vervain Family Clerodendrum fragrans Ventenat, Jardin de la Malmaison, plate 70.1804.