Monographs Details:
Authority:

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

Verbenaceae
Description:

Species Description - Shrub or small tree 2-15 m tall, with mangrove habit; bark dark gray, fissured. Leaf blades 4-10.5 x 1.5-3.8 cm, ovate, elliptic, oblong, or lanceolate, coriaceous, the upper surface glabrescent and pitted, the lower surface densely covered with minute, whitish, appressed hairs and with a prominent stout midvein, the apex acute or obtuse, the base obtuse, the margins revolute; petioles 0.4-1 cm long, appressed-pubescent. Rowers sessile, congested on axillary or terminal, simple or compound dichasial cymes; peduncles 0.7-3.5 cm long, appressed-pubescent. Calyx greenish, the sepals 4-5.5 mm long, ovate, appressed-pubescent; corolla white, the tube 4-5.5 mm long, yellowish, and tomentose within, the lobes 2-2.5 mm long, oblong, reflexed; stamens and style exserted. Capsule elliptic, ovate to oblong, 1.5-2 cm long, light green, compressed, appressed-pubescent when young.

Distribution and Ecology - A common species of the inland side of brackish mangrove swamps. Lameshur (A5136). Probably on all Virgin Islands; common throughout the Caribbean, Florida, Mexico to northern South America.

Discussion:

Common name: black mangrove.