Monographs Details:
Authority:
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Family:
Rubiaceae
Rubiaceae
Description:
Species Description - Shrub 1.5-4 m tall, with lateral, opposite, ascending branches; bark light brown; twigs slightly flattened, glabrous, drying blackish. Leaf blades 7-14.2 x 2-6.5 cm, elliptic, rigidly chartaceous, glabrous, the apex abruptly acuminate-caudate, the base acute or obtuse, the margins entire; petioles 6-12 mm long; stipules 6-7 mm long, broadly deltoid at base, with a long caudate tip, tardily deciduous. Flowers fragrant, in terminal or axillary compound cymes, 5-10 cm long, the axes green, flattened. Hypanthium 1- 1.5 mm long, green, cup-shaped, crowned by a tubular to cupshaped, truncate calyx, 1.5-2 mm long; corolla nearly trumpetshaped, white, the tube 7-12 mm long, cylindrical, the lobes 4, reflexed, lanceolate, acuminate, 4-8 mm long; stamens slightly exserted or included, the anthers lineate; style long-exserted or included, the stigma bilobed. Berry 8-10 mm wide, purplish black, oblate to depressed-ovoid, crowned by the persistent tubular calyx. Seeds obovoid to transversely ellipsoid, 3.5-5 x 5-7 mm.
Distribution and Ecology - A common shrub of secondary moist forests. Bordeaux (A3840), Cinnamon Bay (M17015). Also on St. Thomas and Tortola; widespread throughout the West Indies and Mexico to northern South America.
Species Description - Shrub 1.5-4 m tall, with lateral, opposite, ascending branches; bark light brown; twigs slightly flattened, glabrous, drying blackish. Leaf blades 7-14.2 x 2-6.5 cm, elliptic, rigidly chartaceous, glabrous, the apex abruptly acuminate-caudate, the base acute or obtuse, the margins entire; petioles 6-12 mm long; stipules 6-7 mm long, broadly deltoid at base, with a long caudate tip, tardily deciduous. Flowers fragrant, in terminal or axillary compound cymes, 5-10 cm long, the axes green, flattened. Hypanthium 1- 1.5 mm long, green, cup-shaped, crowned by a tubular to cupshaped, truncate calyx, 1.5-2 mm long; corolla nearly trumpetshaped, white, the tube 7-12 mm long, cylindrical, the lobes 4, reflexed, lanceolate, acuminate, 4-8 mm long; stamens slightly exserted or included, the anthers lineate; style long-exserted or included, the stigma bilobed. Berry 8-10 mm wide, purplish black, oblate to depressed-ovoid, crowned by the persistent tubular calyx. Seeds obovoid to transversely ellipsoid, 3.5-5 x 5-7 mm.
Distribution and Ecology - A common shrub of secondary moist forests. Bordeaux (A3840), Cinnamon Bay (M17015). Also on St. Thomas and Tortola; widespread throughout the West Indies and Mexico to northern South America.
Discussion:
Common name: wild coffee.