Jacquinia arborea Vahl

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Theophrastaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Jacquinia arborea Vahl

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub 2-3 m tall; bark dark gray with blackish spots, rough, finely fissured; twigs angled, yellowish green to ash-colored, covered by minute, scurfy scales. Leaves spirally arranged at ends of branches or loosely whorled; blades 4-10 x 1.4-4.2 cm, obovate to spatulate, rigidly coriaceous, glabrous, minutely pitted along lower surface, the apex rounded, retuse and sometimes mucronulate, the base cuneate, the margins yellowish, entire, strongly revolute; petioles 2-6 mm long, yellowish. Flowers leathery, in terminal racemes; the axes 6-8 cm long; pedicels stout, 1-1.5 cm long, ascending. Calyx bell-shaped, green, 3-3.7 mm long, glabrous, 5-lobed, the lobes imbricate, rounded, minutely pitted, yellowish toward the margins; corolla white, 5-8 mm long, the lobes oblong, spreading, retuse at apex; staminodes white, petallike, shorter than the corolla lobes; stamens 5, slightly exserted, the anthers white, connivent, but spreading at maturity, the filaments subulate-flattened, stout; ovary nearly ovoid, glabrous, the style short, the stigma capitate, red. Berry numerous, on long, hanging racemes, nearly globose, apiculate, 8-10 mm diam., turning from green to yellow and finally bright orange. Seeds nearly ovoid, ca. 5 mm long.

  • Discussion

    Jacquinia barbasco Mez in Engl., Pflanzenr., ser. 4, 236a(15): 32. 1903, n o m . illegit

    Note: Jacquinia arborea was treated by Howard in his Flora of the Lesser Antilles (1989) as conspecific with Jacquinia armillaris Jacq. A recent paper by B. Stahl (1992) recognized the two species as distinctive. Jacquinia arborea is a West Indian species, whereas J. armillaris is a species of northern South America that extends into the Lesser Antilles. Jacquinia arborea may be distinguished from J. armillaris by the glabrous sepals (vs. ciliate at margins), the inconspicuous veins on the lower surface of leaves (vs. conspicuous, secondary veins that ascend from the base), and by the spirally arranged to loosely whorled leaves (vs. whorled).

  • Distribution

    A common shrub of coastal scrub and dry forests, usually along sandy beaches. Hawksnest Beach (A3186), Reef Bay (A3987). Also on Anegada, St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda; Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and the Lesser Antilles.

    West Indies| West Indies| West Indies| Jamaica South America| Puerto Rico South America| Virgin Gorda Virgin Islands South 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| Anegada Virgin Islands South America|