Brunfelsia lactea
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Brunfelsia lactea |
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| Krug & Urb. |
Brunfelsia lactea is a species from the Brunfelsia section of the genus Brunfelsia . The plants are endemic to Puerto Rico .
description
Brunfelsia lactea is a hairless shrub 1 to 3 m high or a small tree that can grow up to 7 m tall and have a trunk diameter of 10 cm. The leaves are membranous to leathery and are scattered or in clusters at the ends of the short branches. They are elliptical, oval or inversely egg-shaped, 5 to 15 cm long, 2.5 to 6.5 cm wide. The tip can be pointed to tapered or blunt. The base is blunt or narrowed. Usually 6 pairs of secondary veins extend from the midrib and converge at the leaf margin. The leaves are veined like a network between the secondary veins. The leaf stalks are 4 to 15 mm long.
The flowers are solitary and terminal, sometimes appearing laterally on short branches. The flower stalks are about 1 cm long. The calyx is bell-shaped and 10 to 12 mm long and covered with short, egg-shaped, rounded lobes. The crown is pale yellow or whitish, later turning slightly pink. The corolla tube is relatively strong, 5 to 7 cm long. The coronet has a diameter of 5 to 6 cm and is covered with rounded, wide lobes.
The fruits are spherical, 2 to 2.5 m wide and contain elliptical, brown, about 4 mm long seeds .
Occurrence
Brunfelsia lactea is endemic to Puerto Rico . There the species grows at high altitudes in the eastern mountains.
swell
- Henri Alain Liogier: Descriptive Flora of Puerto Rico and Adjancent Islands, Spermatophyta , Volume IV: Melastomataceae to Lentibulariaceae . Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1995, ISBN 0-8477-2337-2 .