Callicarpa L.

• Authority

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

• Family

  Verbenaceae

• Scientific Name

  Callicarpa L.

• Description

  Description - Shrubs or trees, with opposite leaves, and small blue purple or white flowers in axillary cymes. Calyx short, eampanulate, 4-toothed (rarely 5- toothed), or truncate. Corolla-tube short, expanded above, the limb 4-cleft (rarely 5-cleft), the lobes equal. Stamens 4, equal, exserted; anther-sacs parallel. Ovary incompletely 2-celled; ovules 2 in each cavity, laterally attached, amphitropous; style slender; stigma capitate, or 2-lobed. Fruit a berry-like drupe, much longer than the calyx, containing 1-4 nutlets. [Greek, handsome fruit.] About 35 species of Asia. Africa and America. Type species: Callicarpa americana L.