Barleria lupulina Lindl.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Acanthaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Spiny, erect subshrub, to 50 cm tall, many-branched from near the base; stems cylindrical, blackish, glabrous, except for younger parts, which are covered with minute whitish hairs; pith hollow. Leaves with a pair of spines at their axils, and usually short branches with clustered leaves. Leaf blades 4.5-13 x 0.7-2.2 cm, narrowly elliptic or linear, chartaceous, glabrous except for a few hairs on veins, lower surface lighter than the upper, the apex acute and mucronate, the base acute, the margins entire and revolute; petioles 0.5-1 cm long. Flowers clustered in dense terminal spikes with large, overlapping bracts covering the bases of the flowers; bracts obovate, to 1.7 cm long, glaucous, with minute glandular dots on both surfaces, the apex mucronate. Calyx with 4 unequal lanceolate sepals; corolla yellow, 3-5 cm long, projecting beyond the bracts with 5 lobes, one separating from the remaining 4 lobes; stamens 4, the 2 fertile exceeding the tube, the 2 sterile reduced; style exceeding the tube. Capsule flattened, ovate-lanceolate, glabrous, to 1.5 cm long. Seeds 5-5.5 mm long, ovate or lenticular, apiculate, with fibrous, golden covering.
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Distribution
Introduced from the Old World tropics as an ornamental, now escaped in open areas. Trail to Brown Bay (A1869, A4128). Also on St. Thomas; Bahamas, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Lesser Antilles.
West Indies| Puerto Rico South America| West Indies| Jamaica South America| Bahamas South America| Saint Thomas Jamaica South America|