Turnera diffusa Willd. ex Schult.

• Title

  Turnera diffusa Willd. ex Schult.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Turnera diffusa Willd. ex Schult.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Turnera diffusa Small-leaved Turbera Family Turneraceae Turnera Family Turnera diffusa Willdenow; Schultes, Systema Vegetabilium 6: 679. 1820. Turnera microphylla Desvaux; Hamilton, Prodromus Plantarum Indiae Occidentalis 33. 1825. Triacis microphylla Grisebach, Flora of the British West Indian Islands 297. 1860. Very different in aspect from Turnera ulmifolia, and somewhat different in details of structure, this low shrub has been classified by some authors in a separate genus. We know neither Spanish nor English popular names. In Porto Rico it is restricted to coastal thickets and rocky hillsides at low elevations in the dry, south-western districts, and has been observed also on the small islands Mona and Vieques; it ranges eastward through the Virgin Islands, inhabits the Bahama Islands, Santo Domingo, Haiti, Cuba and Jamaica. For an account of the genus we refer to our description of Turnera ulmifolia. Turnera diffusa (spreading) is a hairy, much-branched shrub from 0.2 to 1.3 meters high, its slender branches spreading. The characteristic leaves are from 5 to 20 millimeters long, nearly stalkless, mostly blunt with a wedge-shaped base, the veins deeply impressed on the upper side, the margins revolute; they are either smooth or hairy on the upper surface, hairy beneath. The flower-stalks are very short, the calyx 5-toothed, the spatulate petals from 3 to 8 millimeters long, much longer than the calyx-teeth. The nearly globular capsule is about 1.5 millimeters in diameter.