Plumeria rubra L.

• Title

  Plumeria rubra L.

• Author(s)

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Plumeria rubra L.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Plumiera rubra Aleli Red Paucipan Family Apocynaceae Dogbane Family Plumiera rubra Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 209. 1753. A tree, with milky sap, and large broad leaves, native of continental tropical America, frequently planted for ornament in Porto Rico, and locally spontaneous from seed. The large, clustered, red or purple flowers are conspicuous and the tree elegant when in bloom; it is widely planted in tropical regions. This is the type species of the genus. Plumiera rubra (red flowers) is about 8 meters high, or lower, the twigs and flower-clusters hairy. The smooth, oblong-elliptic to elliptic-obovate, pointed leaves are from 15 to 40 centimeters long, on stalks from 3 to 6 centimeters long, the lateral veins widely spreading, the base narrowed. The flowers form stalked clusters of several or many at the ends of the branches, the individual ones on stout stalks from 1.5 to 3 centimeters long; the calyx is about 3 millimeters long; the corolla is from 5 to 7 centimeters long, its tube rather shorter than the limb, the broadly elliptic lobes blunt. The follicles are 25 centimeters long, or shorter, about 2.5 centimeters thick. An account of the genus Plumiera will be found with our description of Plumiera alba.