Monographs Details:
Authority:

Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.
Family:

Rubiaceae
Scientific Name:

Psychotria
Description:

Description - Shrubs or trees, rarely perennial herbs, with opposite or rarely verticillate leaves, the stipules persistent or deciduous, the small flowers in terminal corymbs or panicles, rarely in axillary fascicles. Calyx short, the limb 4-5- toothed. Corolla funnelform or subeampanulate, the limb 4-5-lobed, the lobes valvate. Stamens 5, borne on the corolla-tube, the filaments mostly short, the anthers linear or oblong. Ovary 2-celled; ovules 1 in each cavity, erect, anatropous; style short or elongated; stigma 2-eleft. Fruit a globose to oblong drupe containing 2 pyrenae, smooth, angled or ribbed. Seed convex; endosperm fleshy or cartilaginous. [Greek, to give life, from supposed medicinal properties.] A very large genus, containing 500 species or more, natives of tropical and subtropical America. Type species: Psychotria asiatica L., of Jamaica.