Volkameria aculeata L.

• Title

  Volkameria aculeata L.

• Author(s)

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Volkameria aculeata L.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Volkameria aculeata Escambron blanco Prickly Myrtle Family Verbenaceae Vervain Family Volkameria aculeata Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 637. 1753. Clerodendron aculeatum Grisebach, Flora of the British West Indian Islands, 500. 1861. Growing naturally in coastal regions of the West Indies and continental tropical America within saline influence, this vine-like or upright prickly shrub is frequent along and near the coasts of Porto Rico, locally abundant and forming colonies; it is occasionally planted in gardens for its attractive, white flowers. Crab Prickle is another English name for it, with reference to its habitat in places inhabited by crabs, and the Spanish name Boton de Oro is recorded as sometimes applied to it. The generic name Volkameria, was given to this plant by Linnaeus, commemorating the Nuremburg botanist J. C. Volkamer, who lived from 1644 to 1720; only one species is known; it is separated from the large, related genus Clerodendron, by being armed with prickles or short spines, and the 4 stones of the fruit are united in 2 pairs, instead of all being separate. The leaves are opposite and small, the flowers in clusters among or above them; the bell-shaped calyx has 5 teeth, the corolla is salverform with a slender tube and a 5-lobed limb; there are 4 unequal, elongated stamens and a very slender style topped by a 2-lobed stigma; The fleshy fruit is small and nearly globular. Volkameria aculeata is a slender shrub, often with elongated branches and appearing like a vine, and reaching a length or height of from 2 to 3 meters or sometimes more. The twigs are finely and densely hairy, and armed with stout, opposite spines from 4 to 8 millimeters long. The leaves are slender-stalked, thin, pointed, oblong to elliptic, sometimes broadest above the middle, and 2 to 5 centimeters long. The flowers are few together in stalked, short clusters, each borne on a slender, finely hairy stalk about 14 millimeters long, or shorter; the calyx is about 3 millimeters long, its teeth triangular; the bright white corolla has a tube about 18 millimeters long and a deeply 5-lobed limb about 12 millimeters broad; the purple stamens and the style project far beyond the corolla. The fruit is 4-grooved, and from 6 to 8 millimeters in diameter. Our illustration was first published in "Addisonia", plate 447, December, 1928.