Hillia parasitica Jacq.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Rubiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Hillia parasitica Jacq.

• Description

  Species Description - We have learned of neither Spanish nor English popular names applied to this peculiarly interesting, white-flowered shrub, which grows only upon trees and shrubs in mountain forests; its botanical, specific name is misleading, because the plant is not truly parasitic, but grows merely attached to trees by its roots (epiphytic). It is frequent, or occasional in wet parts of Porto Rico, ascending to the higher elevations, ranges through most of the West Indies, except the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands, and is widely distributed in continental Tropical America. Hillia, named by Jacquin in 1760, in honor of John Hill, an eminent English botanist, who lived from 1716 to 1775, consists of a few species of smooth, epiphytic, tropical American shrubs, the one here illustrated and described, typical, and the only one growing in Porto Rico. Their leaves are opposite, stalked, fleshy and without teeth, their large flowers terminal, solitary, nearly stalkless. The calyx has a nearly cylindric tube, with from 2 to 6 lobes, which fall away; the salverform corolla has a long tube, with from 3 to 7 spreading, twisted lobes; there are from 3 to 7 short stamens, borne on the corolla-tube; the 2-celled ovary contains many ovules, the style is slender, the stigma 2-lobed. The oblong, or cylindric capsule splits into 2 valves, releasing the numerous, very small seeds, which bear a tuft of hairs. Hillia parasitica has rather stout, often drooping branches, sometimes 2 meters long. Its leaves are oblong, or obovate, blunt or pointed, from 5 to 15 centimeters long, shining above, the lateral veins obscure, their stalks 2.5 centimeters long, or shorter; the large, oblong stipules early fall away. The showy, solitary flowers are subtended by stipule-like bracts; the calyx-tube is from 3 to 5 millimeters long, with 6 linear lobes, about as long; the corolla is from 6 to 10 centimeters long, its usually 6 lanceolate lobes from 2 to 4 centimeters long. The cylindric brown capsule is from 6 to 12 centimeters long; the seeds bear a tuft of brownish yellow hairs.

• Discussion

  Madder Family Hillia parasitica Jacquin, Enumeratio Systematica Plantarum 18. 1760.