Chiococca alba
| Chiococca alba | |
|---|---|
| File:Chiococca alba.jpg | |
| Scientific classification Edit this classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Gentianales |
| Family: | Rubiaceae |
| Genus: | Chiococca |
| Species: | C. alba
|
| Binomial name | |
| Chiococca alba | |
| Synonyms | |
Chiococca alba is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family (Rubiaceae) native to Florida and the extreme southern tip of Texas in the United States,[4] Bermuda,[3] Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Galápagos, and tropical South America. Common names include David's milkberry, West Indian milkberry, cahinca[5] and West Indian snowberry.[6] The specific epithet, alba, means "white" in Latin and refers to the color of its fruits.[7]
Description
[edit | edit source]West Indian milkberry is an evergreen[5] woody vine or scrambling shrub that often grows on other vegetation and may reach a height of 6 m (20 ft).[6] The opposite, simple leaves are 5–11 cm (2.0–4.3 in) long and may be elliptic to ovate or broadly lanceolate in shape. Yellow, bell-shaped flowers up to 1 cm (0.39 in) in length appear throughout the year[8] on racemes or panicles of six of to eight.[9] The fruit is a white drupe 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) in diameter[8] that generally contains two dark brown seeds.[6]
Taxonomy
[edit | edit source]Lonicera alba was described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus.[10] It was moved to Chiococca in 1893 by A. S. Hitchcock,[2] and is considered the type species of that genus.[11] Stewardson Brown described the Bermuda population of the plant as a new species, C. bermudiana, in 1909 due to its lighter green and larger leaves, larger berries, and wider and longer pedicels. Many authorities consider C. bermudiana a synonym of C. alba.[3]
Uses
[edit | edit source]Chiococca alba is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental for its dark green, evergreen foliage and white drupes. It is used in espalier and grown on trellises.[9] The roots have several uses in herbal medicine, including as a laxative, diuretic, emetic, and antidiarrhoeal.[6] The plant was sold commercially in Europe and the United States for those purposes at one time.[12]
References
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External links
[edit | edit source]- File:Wikispecies-logo.svg Data related to Chiococca alba at Wikispecies
- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons
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