Capraria biflora L.

• Title

  Capraria biflora L.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Capraria biflora L.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Capraria biflora Te del pais Goat-weed Family Scrophulariaceae Figwort Family Capraria biflora Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 628. 1753. This white-flowered, herbaceous plant is one of the most plentiful of tropical and subtropical America, very widely distributed, ranging northward to Bermuda, Florida, and Texas, growing on banks, in fields, waste and cultivated grounds. It is common at lower and middle elevations in Porto Rico, and grows also on the small islands of Mona, Vieques, Cayo Icacos, and Culebra, and is the only species of the genus in our Flora. Capraria (Latin, from Capra a nanny-goat), is a genus of 4 species, based by Linnaeus on the species here illustrated. They are perennial herbs, or shrubby plants, with alternate, mostly narrow, toothed leaves, and stalked, axillary flowers. The calyx is composed of 5, narrow sepals, nearly alike; the bell-shaped, white corolla is 5-lobed; there are, usually, 5 stamens, alternate with the corolla-lobes; there are, usually, 5 stamens, alternate with the corolla-lobes; the ovary is 2-celled, the style slender, the stigma dilated, or 2-lobed. The short, 2-grooved capsule splits longitudinally, releasing the small seeds. Capraria biflora (two-flowered, the flowers sometimes paired) is a smooth, or hairy plant, sometimes nearly a meter high, usually lower, and branched. The thin, oblanceolate or oblong, pointed leaves are from 1 to 4 centimeters long, narrow or wedge-shaped at the base, sharply toothed above the middle. The flowers are borne solitary, or 2 together, on stalks shorter than the leaves; the narrow sepals are from 4 to 6 millimeters long; the white corolla, about 10 millimeters long, has lance-shaped lobes about as long as the bell-shaped tube. The ovoid or oblong capsule is about as long as the persistent sepals.