Croton linearis Jacq.

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

  • Family

    Euphorbiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Croton linearis Jacq.

  • Description

    Species Description - A shrub 1-2 m. high, with yellowish, densely stellate twigs. Leaves shortpctiolate, narrowly linear (on young shoots often oblong) 3.8-7 cm. long, 2-6 mm. wide, obtuse, dark and smooth above, silvery or golden with stellate tomentum beneath, narrowing to the biglandular base. Inflorescence racemose, the male 4-8 mm. or more long, the female shorter. Male flowers: sepals 5-6, triangular; petals spatulate, obtuse, ciliate, longer than the sepals; stamens about 15. Female flowers: sepals narrow, acuminate; petals obsolete or rudimentary. Capsule subglobose, yellowish-floecose; seeds broadly oblong, dark greenish brown, minutely and very shallowly puncticulate, 3 mm. long, 2.8 mm. broad.

  • Distribution

    Coastal rocks and plains throughout the archipelago to Caicos and Turks Islands : Florida ; Jamaica ; Hispaniola. Referred to in Field Mus. Bot. 2 : 152 and by Coker as C. discolor Willd. Linear-leaved Croton. Bay Wormwood. Granny-bush.

    Turks and Caicos Islands South America| Florida United States of America North America| Jamaica South America| West Indies|