Jacquinia

  • Authority

    Ståhl, Bertil. 2010. Theophrastaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 105: 1-160. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Theophrastaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Jacquinia L.

  • Type

    Type. Jacquinia aculeata (Linnaeus) Mez.

  • Description

    Genus Description - Shrubs or small trees, usually many-branched, stems unarmed. Leaves pseudoverticillate or sometimes alternate, small or very small, short-petiolate, acute or obtuse at apex, often shortly spine-tipped, glabrous; margins entire; extraxylary sclerenchyma abundant, arranged in more or less subepidermal bundles or layers; crystals abundant in mesophyll, often present in epidermis. Racemes terminal, few- to many-flowered, usually borne singly, through modifications sometimes appearing as umbels or corymbs; bracts narrowly ovate to linear, inserted at junction of pedicel and rachis. Flowers 5-merous, bisexual. Calyx greenish yellow, lobes suborbicular or very broadly ovate, margins entire, erose or ciliate. Corolla white to pale yellow, campanulate or urceolate, glandular-punctate, lobes oblong or broadly ovate, margins eventually more or less deflexed. Stamens at beginning of anthesis loosely coherent, eventually spreading, filaments mostly glandular-punctate; anthers obtuse or truncate at apex. Staminodes flattened and petaloid, broadly oblong to broadly ovate, subcordate at base, inserted at mouth of corolla tube. Ovary ovoid to subglobose, style somewhat shorter or equal in length to ovary, stigma capitate; ovules many to numerous, densely set in several series. Fruit yellow to dark orange, subglobose, oblong, or broadly obovoid, usually apiculate, glabrous, pericarp thin and fragile when dried. Seeds rather small, subglobose, light brown, completely embedded in placental tissue.

  • Discussion

    The genus was named in honor of the Austrian botanist Nikolaus Joseph Jacquin (1727-1817).

  • Distribution

    All species in West Indies; J. armillaris also in N South America and E Brazil, J. arborea on islands off the Caribbean coast of Mexico and Honduras, and J. keyensis in S Florida.

    West Indies|