Narratives Details:
Title:
Randia mitis L.
Randia mitis L.
Authors:
Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne
Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne
Scientific Name:
Randia mitis L., Randia aculeata L., Randia latifolia Lam.
Randia mitis L., Randia aculeata L., Randia latifolia Lam.
Description:
Flora Borinqueña Randia mitis Palo de cotorra Box Brier Family Rubiaceae Madder Family Randia mitis Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 1192. 1753. Randia aculeata Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 1192. 1753. Randia latifolia Lamarck, Encyclopédie Méthodique Botanique 3: 24.1789. Many other popular names are, or have been, used for this small, evergreen tree, among them Escambron and Tintello in Spanish, Dogwood, Christmas Tree and Ink-berry in English. It is distributed nearly throughout the West Indies, ranging north to Florida, and to Bermuda; in Porto Rico it is most abundant in the dry districts, at lower and middle elevations, and grows also on the small islands Mona, Vieques, and Cayo Icacos. The brown wood is strong, hard, heavy and durable. The tree is characteristic in form, with a straight, slender, upright trunk and many, short, leafy branches, the young ones well-formed for Christmas trees, but need to be handled with care, for they are usually spiny. Randia, named by Linnaeus in honor of Isaac Rand, an English apothecary, has about 100 species of trees and shrubs, all natives of tropical and subtropical America, with opposite leaves, the flowers mostly solitary in their axils. The calyx is adnate to the ovary, the corolla with 5, convolute lobes, and there are 5, short stamens borne on the corolla-tube; the usually 2-celled ovary contains several or many ovules. The fruit is a berry. Randia mitis (not sharp, but it is often spiny) may form a tree about 10 meters high, but is usually much smaller, sometimes shrubby, the branches usually spiny. The often clustered, nearly or quite smooth leaves are various in form, from spatulate to elliptic, or nearly orbicular, from 1 to 5 centimeters long, narrowed into short stalks. The flowers are solitary, and short-stalked in the leaf-axils; the calyx has 5, triangular, or ovate lobes; the white corolla is from 6 to 8 millimeters long, its oblong lobes shorter than the tube. The white, oblong, or nearly globular, smooth berry is 6 or 8 millimeters long, black within. Another species, Randia portoricensis, is endemic in the dry, southwestern parts of Porto Rico.
Flora Borinqueña Randia mitis Palo de cotorra Box Brier Family Rubiaceae Madder Family Randia mitis Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 1192. 1753. Randia aculeata Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 1192. 1753. Randia latifolia Lamarck, Encyclopédie Méthodique Botanique 3: 24.1789. Many other popular names are, or have been, used for this small, evergreen tree, among them Escambron and Tintello in Spanish, Dogwood, Christmas Tree and Ink-berry in English. It is distributed nearly throughout the West Indies, ranging north to Florida, and to Bermuda; in Porto Rico it is most abundant in the dry districts, at lower and middle elevations, and grows also on the small islands Mona, Vieques, and Cayo Icacos. The brown wood is strong, hard, heavy and durable. The tree is characteristic in form, with a straight, slender, upright trunk and many, short, leafy branches, the young ones well-formed for Christmas trees, but need to be handled with care, for they are usually spiny. Randia, named by Linnaeus in honor of Isaac Rand, an English apothecary, has about 100 species of trees and shrubs, all natives of tropical and subtropical America, with opposite leaves, the flowers mostly solitary in their axils. The calyx is adnate to the ovary, the corolla with 5, convolute lobes, and there are 5, short stamens borne on the corolla-tube; the usually 2-celled ovary contains several or many ovules. The fruit is a berry. Randia mitis (not sharp, but it is often spiny) may form a tree about 10 meters high, but is usually much smaller, sometimes shrubby, the branches usually spiny. The often clustered, nearly or quite smooth leaves are various in form, from spatulate to elliptic, or nearly orbicular, from 1 to 5 centimeters long, narrowed into short stalks. The flowers are solitary, and short-stalked in the leaf-axils; the calyx has 5, triangular, or ovate lobes; the white corolla is from 6 to 8 millimeters long, its oblong lobes shorter than the tube. The white, oblong, or nearly globular, smooth berry is 6 or 8 millimeters long, black within. Another species, Randia portoricensis, is endemic in the dry, southwestern parts of Porto Rico.
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