Psychotria microdon (DC.) Urb.

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Rubiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Psychotria microdon (DC.) Urb.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Scandent shrub 2-2.5 m long, lateral branches decussate, short to elongate; twigs 4-angled, grayish. Leaves opposite; blades 5- 10 x 2-4.2 cm, obovate to oblanceolate, chartaceous, puberulent along the veins on lower surface, the apex acute to obtuse, the base acute to obtuse, the margins entire; petioles 0.5-2 cm long, slender; stipules ovate, 1.5 mm long, early deciduous. Flowers 5- merous, nearly sessile, in terminal corymbs, borne at ends of the lateral branches. Hypanthium 1.5-2 mm long, cup-shaped, glabrous, green, finely toothed; corolla white, bell-shaped, the tube ca. 5 mm long, the lobes 3-3.5 mm long, spreading; stamens 5, included, the anthers lanceolate, ca. 2 mm long; style filform. Drupe compressed-obovoid, 5-6 mm long, red at maturity; pyrenes 2, furrowed.

    Distribution and Ecology - An occasional shrub of open, disturbed, moist areas. Adrian Ruins (A2395), road to Bordeaux (A2876). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda; Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, northern South America, and along the Pacific coast to Peru.

  • Discussion

    Psychotria pinnularis Sesse & Moc,., Fl. Mexic, ed. 2, 57. 1894.