Psychotria nervosa Benth.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Rubiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Psychotria nervosa Benth.

• Description

  
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  Species Description - Various in hairyness, and in size of leaves, this widely distributed West Indian shrub has received several botanical names; the eminent botanist De Candolle supposed the Porto Rico plant to be a distinct species, and thus indicated it. Here it is frequent in thickets and on hillsides at lower and middle elevations in moist and dry districts; it is distributed nearly all over the West Indies, ranging northward into Florida, and grows also in Central America. The small, white, clustered flowers are not conspicuous, but the red, ellipsoid fruits are attractive. Psychotria (Greek, to give life, from supposed medicinal properties) is an immense genus, named by Linnaeus, shrubs, herbs and trees of tropical and subtropical America, estimated to include 500 species or more, their leaves opposite, or rarely verticillate, their small flowers mostly in terminal clusters. The 4-toothed or 5-toothed calyx, attached to the ovary, is short; the funnel form, or nearly bell-shaped corolla, also short, has 4 or 5 lobes, and there are 5, short stamens; the 2-celled ovary has 1 ovule in each cavity; the stigma is 2-cleft. The fruits are small and fleshy, usually containing 2 nutlets, which are often grooved, or angled. Psychotria nervosa (referring to the strongly nerved leaves) is a shrub from 0.5 to 5 meters high, more or less hairy, or in moist regions smooth. The pointed, elliptic, strongly pinnately veined leaves are from 6 to 12 centimeters long, with stalks about 15 millimeters long, or shorter; their sheathing stipules fall away early. The flowers are several or many together, in stalkless clusters, the individual ones also stalkless or with very short stalks; the calyx is about 1 millimeter long, the white corolla about 4 millimeters long, with lobes shorter than the tube. The red ellipsoid, fruits are blunt, from 5 to 7 millimeters long, the nutlets grooved. There are 15 other species of psychotria in the Porto Rico Flora, one of them parasitic on forest trees, one herbaceous, the rest shrubs, or small trees.

• Discussion

  Palo moro Wild Coffee Madder Family Psychotria nervosa Swartz, Prodronius 43. 1788. Psychotria undata Jacquin, Hortus Schoenbrunensis 3: 5. 1798. Psychotria portoricensis De Candolle, Prodromus 4: 515. 1830.