Hamelia erecta Jacq.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Rubiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Hamelia erecta Jacq.

• Description

  Species Description - The eminent botanist Nicolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin, who was born in Holland in 1727 and died in Vienna in 1817, made large botanical collections in the West Indies and northern South America during the years 1755 to 1759, on behalf of Austrian gardens and museums. Many of the plants were illustrated, in color, and described in his several, monumental, folio volumes. He supposed that there were two different species, one with upright flower-clusters, which, he designated erecta, the other spreading, which he called patens; subsequent knowledge showed that these are but conditions of the same species, which is frequent in Porto Rico at lower and middle altitudes, as nearly throughout the West Indies, and continental tropical America, ranging north to Florida. Hamelia (named in honor of H. L. Du Hamel de Monceau, a French botanist, who lived from 1700 to 1782), has about 25 species, all natives of tropical America. They are shrubs or small trees, with opposite, or whorled leaves, and mostly small, red or yellow flowers, clustered at the ends of branches, the individual ones forming one-sided forks in the clusters. The calyx, attached to the ovary, has 5, short lobes; the tubular, or narrowly bell-shaped corolla is constricted near the base, its limb 5-lobed; 5 stamens are borne near the base of the corolla, with short filaments and narrow anthers; the 5-celled ovary contains many ovules, the style is very slender, the stigma narrow. The ovoid berry contains many, small seeds. Hamelia erecta (upright) may become a small tree about 7 meters high, but is usually lower and commonly a shrub; the slender branches are more or less hairy. The slender-stalked, thin, elliptic leaves are opposite, or from 3 to 5 together, pointed, somewhat hairy, from 5 to 15 centimeters long. The hairy flower-clusters have from 3 to 5 rays, or forks, bearing several, or many very short-stalked flowers; the tubular corolla is from 12 to 20 millimeters long, and varies in color from crimson to scarlet or orange. The red or purple berries are 5 or 6 millimeters long. In dry parts of Porto Rico the foliage is more densely hairy than in moist or wet districts. Another species, Hamelia axillaris is also illustrated in this work.

• Discussion

  Balsamo Red Hamelia Madder Family Hamelia erecta Jacquin, Enumeratio Systematica Plantarum 16. 1760. Hamelia patens Jacquin, Enumeratio Systematica Plantarum 16. 1760.