Monographs Details:
Authority:
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Family:
Rubiaceae
Rubiaceae
Description:
Species Description - This widely distributed coastal plant grows on maritime sands and rocks nearly throughout the West Indies, but is not known to occur south of Guadeloupe; it ranges north into Florida, and is also found on the coasts of Yucatan and Honduras. It is restricted in habitat to situations reached by ocean spray, growing either in colonies, or intermixed with other halophytic vegetation, is frequent in Porto Rico, and occurs also on the small islands Mona, Cayo Icacos, Vieques and Culebra. The genus Ernodea (Greek, a shoot, or off-shoot) consists of about 6 species, all of which grow on islands of the Bahama Archipelago, and 4 of them are not known elsewhere; the genus thus reaches its greatest development in that region; they are shrubs, mostly low, with opposite, short-stalked, narrow leaves, the stipules united into a sheath. The small flowers are stalkless, and solitary in the leaf-axils; the calyx has a short tube and a 4-parted to 6-parted limb; the white or pink corolla has a nearly cylindric tube, with from 4 to 6, narrow lobes; there are as many stamens as corolla-lobes; the pistil has a 2-celled ovary, with a single ovule in each cell, a slender style and a small stigma. The small, fleshy fruit is grooved and contains 2 seeds. Ernodea littoralis (of the coast) is a rather densely leafy shrub, with erect or prostrate branches, either smooth, or finely glandular hairy; it is seldom more than 1 meter high, but we have observed it reaching 8 meters in a thicket near Cape San Juan; its slender twigs are 4-angled. The leaves are narrow, but various in form and size, somewhat fleshy, shining, 3-nerved or 5-nerved, sometimes finely glandular-toothed, from 2 to 3.5 centimeters long, and from 4 to 10 millimeters wide; their stipular sheath is about 2 millimeters long. The narrow lobes of the calyx are longer than its tube; the tube of the corolla is from 1 to 1.5 centimeters long. The fruit is nearly globular, yellow, from 4 to 6 millimeters in diameter, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes.
Species Description - This widely distributed coastal plant grows on maritime sands and rocks nearly throughout the West Indies, but is not known to occur south of Guadeloupe; it ranges north into Florida, and is also found on the coasts of Yucatan and Honduras. It is restricted in habitat to situations reached by ocean spray, growing either in colonies, or intermixed with other halophytic vegetation, is frequent in Porto Rico, and occurs also on the small islands Mona, Cayo Icacos, Vieques and Culebra. The genus Ernodea (Greek, a shoot, or off-shoot) consists of about 6 species, all of which grow on islands of the Bahama Archipelago, and 4 of them are not known elsewhere; the genus thus reaches its greatest development in that region; they are shrubs, mostly low, with opposite, short-stalked, narrow leaves, the stipules united into a sheath. The small flowers are stalkless, and solitary in the leaf-axils; the calyx has a short tube and a 4-parted to 6-parted limb; the white or pink corolla has a nearly cylindric tube, with from 4 to 6, narrow lobes; there are as many stamens as corolla-lobes; the pistil has a 2-celled ovary, with a single ovule in each cell, a slender style and a small stigma. The small, fleshy fruit is grooved and contains 2 seeds. Ernodea littoralis (of the coast) is a rather densely leafy shrub, with erect or prostrate branches, either smooth, or finely glandular hairy; it is seldom more than 1 meter high, but we have observed it reaching 8 meters in a thicket near Cape San Juan; its slender twigs are 4-angled. The leaves are narrow, but various in form and size, somewhat fleshy, shining, 3-nerved or 5-nerved, sometimes finely glandular-toothed, from 2 to 3.5 centimeters long, and from 4 to 10 millimeters wide; their stipular sheath is about 2 millimeters long. The narrow lobes of the calyx are longer than its tube; the tube of the corolla is from 1 to 1.5 centimeters long. The fruit is nearly globular, yellow, from 4 to 6 millimeters in diameter, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes.
Discussion:
Ernodea de costa Common Ernodea Madder Family Ernodea littoralis Swartz, Prodromus Descriptionum Vegetabilium 29. 1788.
Ernodea de costa Common Ernodea Madder Family Ernodea littoralis Swartz, Prodromus Descriptionum Vegetabilium 29. 1788.
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