Hamelia axillaris Sw.

• Title

  Hamelia axillaris Sw.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Hamelia axillaris Sw.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Hamelia axillaris Balsamillo Yellow Hamelia Family Rubiaceae Madder Family Hamelia axillaris Swartz, Prodromus Nova Genera et Species Plantarum 46. 1788. Hamelia lutea De Rohr; Smith, in Rees' Cyclopedia 17; no. 4. 1811. Hamelia declinata Sesse and Mocino, Flora Mexicana, edition 2. 60. 1894. Olaf Swartz, who published the first description of this shrub, was an eminent Swedish botanist who lived from 1760 to 1818; he made large collections of plants in the West Indies during the years from 1783 to 1787, visiting Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba, and published several important descriptive botanical works. He knew this plant from Jamaica and Hispaniola, and supposing that the flower clusters are borne in the leaf-axils, gave it the name axillaris, which is inopportune, because they mostly terminate twigs, but has priority. This shrub is occasional in Porto Rico woods, forests and ravines, in wet or moist districts, ranging from sea-level to at least 800 meters elevation; it is distributed through the Greater Antilles, on some of the Lesser Antilles from St. Croix and Saba to Trinidad, and on the continent from Costa Rica to Venezuela and Peru. For an account of the genus we refer to our description of Hamelia erecta. Hamelia axillaris is a nearly smooth shrub, about 2 meters high, or lower, often much branched and straggling, with slender branches; the young twigs and leaves are sometimes finely hairy. The thin, slender-stalked, broad, opposite, sharply pointed leaves are from 5 to 10 centimeters long. The nearly stalkless flowers form clusters with 1-sided forks or branches; the yellow, funnelform, bell-shaped corolla is about 12 millimeters long, with short lobes. The black, globose, or ellipsoid berries are about 8 millimeters long.