Randia

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Rubiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Randia

  • Description

    Genus Description - Shrubs or small trees, often with axillary spines. Leaves opposite or congested on short axillary branches, petiolate or sessile; stipules interpetiolar, connate at base, persistent. Flowers bisexual or unisexual (the species then dioecious), 5-merous, actinomorphic, in axillary or terminal fascicles or corymbs, if dioecious then the pistillate flower solitary; hypanthium obovoid or obconical, crowned by a tubular, toothed or truncate calyx; corolla trumpet-shaped, funnel-shaped, or rarely bell-shaped, the tube short or long, pubescent or glabrous within, the lobes contorted in bud; stamens 5, included or exserted, the filaments inserted in the corolla throat; ovary inferior, 2-carpellate, each carpel with 2 or 3 rows of horizontal ovules, the placentation parietal, the style club-shaped, many-lobed. Fruit a leathery, subglobose or ovoid berry with numerous horizontal seeds.

    Distribution and Ecology - A neotropical genus of about 70 species.