Pithecellobium unguis-cati (L.) Benth.
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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
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small tree to 6 m tall; bark light brown to grayish, smooth, slightly fissured and warty, sometimes with persistent spines; branches usually arched, cylindrical, striate, armed with persistent stipular spines. Leaves 3-10 cm long; pinnae 2, opposite; leaflets opposite, 2 per pinna, 2.5-6 x 1.5-5 cm long, obliquely obovate to nearly rounded, coriaceous, glabrous, the apex obtuse or rounded, the base rounded-obtuse, asymmetrical, the margins entire; stipules 5-10 mm long, spinelike. Heads subglobose, 1.5-2.5 cm wide, few-flowered, borne on axillary racemes. Flowers 5-merous; calyx 1.5-2 mm long, green, glabrous; corolla 4-5 mm long, yellow; the filaments yellow, twice as long as the petals. Legume 5-10 x 1 cm, twisted, torulose, turgid, turning from green to brown, dehiscent from top to bottom by twisting valves exposing several hanging seeds. Seeds ca. 8 mm long, ellipsoid, shiny black, covered with a red aril on lower half.
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Discussion
Common names: blackbead, bread and cheese, crabprickle, goatbush
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Distribution
Common shrub of coastal scrublands and open disturbed areas. Great Cruz Bay (A2355), Enighed (A4006). Also on Anegada, Jost van Dyke, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Virgin Gorda; Florida, throughout the West Indies, Venezuela.
Venezuela South America| West Indies| Florida United States of America North America| Virgin Gorda Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Virgin Islands South America| Anegada Virgin Islands South America|