Citharexylum fruticosum L.
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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
Verbenaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small tree 1.5-10 m tall; bark dark brown to grayish, rough; young branches and petioles orange-tinged; stems obtusely 4-angled, striate, puberulent, with numerous minute, scale-like dots. Leaf blades 5-15 x 2-6 cm, elliptic, oblong, or elliptic lanceolate, coriaceous, puberulent to pubescent, with numerous scale-like dots, the apex acute, acuminate, obtuse, or retuse, the base narrowed or obtuse, the margins revolute, entire (serrate in juvenile leaves); petioles 8-25 mm long, puberulent, with a pair of impressed glands near the blade. Rowers sessile or nearly so, on axillary and terminal spikes, 3-14 cm long. Calyx greenish, bell-shaped to tubular, puberulent, 2.5-4 mm long, the lobes ciliate; corolla white, trumpet-shaped, 4-7 mm long, the tube yellowish, the lobes spreading, ciliate; stamens and style included. Drupe ellipsoid to ovoid, 7-10 mm long, turning from green to orange to purple; fruiting calyx turning brown at maturity.
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Discussion
Common names: fiddlewood, old woman bitter, susannaleche. Note: A modem revision of Citharexylum may show C. fruticosum to be conspecific with Citharexylum spinosum L., in which case, the epithet spinosum, being the older name, should be adopted.
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Distribution
A common tree or shrub of dry to moist forests. Center Line Road (A3814), Emmaus (A2005), Southside Pond (A1839). Also on anegada, Jost van Dyke, St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda; common throughout the West Indies and northern South America.
South America| Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Tortola Virgin Islands South 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|