Flora of Dominica, Part 2 - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 77 LAMIACEAE-LAURACEAE 123
mouth of the fruiting calyx; nutlets f spherical, brown.
Native in Old World, occasional in West Indies and South
America; locally common in Dominica: Belvedere (Whitefoord
3702), Grand Bay (Wilbur 7941), Salybia (Hodge 3200).
Aromatic foliage used for tea to bring down fever.
Adjanohoun et al. (1985:121, pl. 88) reported medicinal and
magic usages.
Salvia Linnaeus
Two species with red flowers may be cultivated on
Dominica. Sulviu coccinea Etlinger with a greenish calyx was
collected on Dominica sine loc. (Imruy 125 at K).
Salvia splendens Sellow ex Nees (1821,2:334) with a large
scarlet calyx may be expected in cultivation.
The attribution of Salviu densiflora Bentham, with the type
locality “in ins. Dominica,” to Dominica is an error for Santo
Domingo. This Hispaniolan endemic is not found in the Lesser
Antilles.
1. Flowers blue to purple; leaves sharply serrate; floral bracts
persistent, broadly ovate and acuminate . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. occidenhlis
1. Flowers usually white; leaves bluntly serrate; bracts
deciduous, lanceolate . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. serotina
Salvia occidenialis Swartz, 1788:ll.
Salvia occidental&
Sprawling herb with small, blue flowers.
Neotropics; a common weed on the western side of
Dominica: East Cabrit (Whitefoord 5262), Fond Baron (Ernst
1612), Goodwill (Ernst 1298), Sylvania (Cooper 86), West
Cabrit (Smith 10322).
SaIvia seroritu h eus, 1767b:25.
Salvia serotina
Suffrutescent low herb; flowers white, sometimes blue.
West Indies and Yucatan; in xerophytic areas of Dominica’s
west coast: Batali River (Ernst 2121), West Cabrit (Whitefoord
3980), Roseau (Duss s.n.), Scotts Head (Ernst 1967, Webster
13440, Wilbur 7586), Soufriere (Lloyd 414), Swamp Gutter
(Hodge 883, Whitefoord 4050).
Scutellaria Linnaeus
Scutelluria coccineu Kunth, with showy purple-red flowers
and elliptic leaf with attenuate base, may be cultivated on
Dominica.
Scutellaria huvunensis Jacquin of the Greater Antilles was
listed by Velez (1957:98) for Dominica. It is a weak herb with
blue flowers and shortly petioled leaves ( 4 cm long).
1. Corolla blue to purplish . . . . . . . . , S. purpurascens
1. Corolla scarlet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. ventenatii
Scutellaria purpurascens
Scutellaria pwpurawens Swartz, 1788:89.
Weedy herb to 0.5 m; leaf blades ovate with obtuse to
truncate base and margin slightly crenate; petiole as long as the
blade.
Northern neotropics; occasional in Dominica at lower
elevations: Batali (Erst 2118), Fon Pays (Hodge 2833,
Lisdara (Hodge 2452), Magua (Stehle 6383), Soufriere (Lloyd
480), South Chiltern (Nicolson 2175), sine loc. (Imruy 44).
Scutellaria ventenatii
Scutellaria ventenatii W. Hooker, 1846.
Straggling herb to 1 m; leaf blade ovate with f cordate base
and acuminate apex, margin entire to slightly dentate.
Native of northern South America, introduced and naturalized
elsewhere; occasional in Dominica at mid-elevations on
west side: Laudat (Lloyd 256), Lisdara (Cooper 148, Hodge
2342), Morne aux Diables (Wusshuusen & Ayensu 363,
Soufriere (Lloyd 472), Springfield (Wolf 2), sine loc. (Eggers
840).
LAURACEAE
An economically important family with beautiful, often
aromatic wood but rarely collected in flower and fruit; hence, I
find the species difficult.
The family is easy to recognize in flower by its unique
stamens. The outer stamens open by 2 or 4 valves, which open
upwards by flaps. The genera are primarily defined by
variations in the stamens, viewed as evolved from an idealized
ancestral form with 12 stamens in 4 whorls of 3 stamens each.
The outer two series (whorls) open toward the center of the
flower, the third whorl opens toward the outside of the flower
and often has 2 large and swollen glands at the base of each of
the 3 stamens. The fourth series is usually aborted and sterile
(staminodia), sometimes absent.
Three Asiatic species of Cinnumomum have been collected
fiom cultivation in Dominica: (1) Cinnumomum burmunni (C.
& T Nees) Nees ex Blume, the padang-cassia of which the bark
is used like cinnamon, collected at Magua (Stehle 6350,
flowering in April); (2) Cinnumomum cumphora (Linnaeus)
Presl, the camphor tree, collected at the Roseau Botanic
Garden, Experimental Station and Mome Bruce Plot (Jones
s.n., sterile); (3) Cinnumomum verum FYesl (including Cinnamomum
zeylanicum Garcin ex Blume), the true cinnamon,
collected at La Plaine (Ernst 1911, Nicolson 2051) and Mahaut
(Hodge 1304, flowering in February). These triplinerved
species may be distinguished as follows: