Authority:

Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

Family:

Rubiaceae

Description:

Genus Description - Shrubs or small trees, unarmed. Leaves opposite or 3 per node, petiolate to nearly sessile; stipules interpetiolar, free or connate, forming a sheath around the stem, persistent. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, heterostylous, in axillary or terminal cymes, corymbs, or panicles; hypanthium rotund or oblong, crowned by a tubular, (4-)5-7-toothed calyx; corolla trumpet-shaped, (4-)5-lobed, the tube longer than the lobes, pubescent or glabrous within, the throat usually crowned by an annular thickening, the lobes imbricate in bud; stamens 5, the filaments inserted on the throat; ovary inferior, 2-carpellate, each carpel with numerous axial ovules, the style filiform, bilobed. Fruit a leathery or papery, loculicidal capsule, opening along 2 longitudinal valves; seeds numerous, minute, sometimes winged.

Distribution and Ecology - A neotropical genus of about 120 species.