Moringa oleifera Lam.
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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
Moringaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Small tree or shrub to 7 m tall; bark grayish, smooth; branches pubescent, fragile. Leaves 3 times pinnately compound, 20-60 cm long, nearly triangular (pinnae gradually increasing in size toward the base); pinnae opposite, often 4-5 pairs; leaflets opposite, petiolulate, 0.9-2.5 x 0.4-1.5 cm, chartaceous, elliptic, oblong, or oblanceolate, glabrous or puberulent, the apex rounded to obtuse, the base obtuse to rounded, slightly asymmetrical, the margins entire; stipules early deciduous. Flowers white, in axillary panicles. Hypanthium green; sepals white, petaloid, reflexed, oblong, pubescent, 8-12 mm long; petals white, pubescent at base, oblanceolate, the outermost erect, 12-15 mm long, the remaining ones reflexed, 6-8 mm long; stamens 5, unequal, with length of innermost decreasing, the filaments widened and pubescent at base, staminodes 3, shorter than the stamens; ovary ovoid to oblong, woolly-pubescent, the style equaling the longest stamen. Capsule explosively dehiscent by longitudinal valves, 20-40 x 1-1.5 cm, trigonous in cross section, the valves thickened and corky. Seeds numerous, globose-trigonous, 9-10 mm diam., blackish, with 3 membranous, white wings, 2.5-3 cm long.
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Discussion
Guilandina moringa L., Sp. PL 381. 1753. Moringapterygosperma Gaertn., Frut. S e m . P L 2: 314. 1791, n o m . illegit.
Common name: horseradish tree.
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Distribution
Persistent after cultivation, perhaps becoming naturalized. Coral Bay (A1950), Cruz Bay Town (A4039). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Tortola; native to the Old World but widely cultivated and naturalizing throughout tropical America.
Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|