Palicourea crocea (Sw.) Roem. & Schult.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Rubiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Palicourea crocea (Sw.) Schult.

• Description

  Species Description - We have found no English name for this shrub, frequent in woods and thickets in wet and moist parts of Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations, and distributed nearly throughout the West Indies, except the Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, attractive by its abundant, small, red to orange flowers. For an account of the genus Palicourea we refer to our description of Palicourea domingensis. Palicourea crocea (saffron) is a nearly hairless shrub, from 1 to 3 meters high, often much branched, with slender, nearly round twigs, and sheathing, narrowly lobed stipules 3 to 5 millimeters long. Its ovate or elliptic, thin, pointed leaves are from 6 to 20 centimeters long, and sometimes bear a few hairs on the under side; their stalks are from 5 to 25 millimeters long. The clusters of flowers are pyramidal, usually longer than thick, with yellow or orange branches and flower-stalks; the calyx is only about 1 millimeter long; the red, or orange, short-tubular corolla is 8 or 10 millimeters long, with short, ovate lobes. The compressed, ovate, nearly black fruit is 4 or 5 millimeters long, the 2 nutlets crested. There are 6 species of Palicourea in the Porto Rico Flora, 3 of them illustrated in this work.

• Discussion

  Cachimbo Madder Family Psychotria crocea Swarta, Prodromus Nova Genera et Species Plantarum 44. 1788. Palicourea coccinea De Candolle, Prodromus 4: 529. 1850. Palicourea crocea Roemer & Schultes, Systema Vegetabilium 5: 193. 1819.