Flora of Dominica, Part 2 - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

184 RH~~~PHORACEAE-RUEIIACBAE SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY
Hodge (1964:31) noted, “the common genera of mangrove
(Rhizophora, Avicennia, Laguncularia, and Conocarpus) are
absent from Dominica, a fact easily accounted for by the lack of
sufficient lowland sites on an island where the coastline is very
precipitous.” Actually, Laguncularia racemsa (Combretaceae)
now has been collected in the Cabrit swamp.
Cassipourea guinanensis
Cassipowea guinanensis Aublet, 1775, 1:529.-L.O. Williams,1961:369.
Legnotis elliptica Swam, 1788:84.
Cassipourea elliptica (Swam) Poiretin Lamarck. 181 1, Encycl., Suppl., 2:131.
Cassipourea alba Grisebach, 1857:223(75).
Cassipourea elliptica var. alba (Grisebach) Grisebach, 1860:274.
Cassipourea elliprica var. pauciserrata Grisebach, 1860:274.
Bois agouti, pois die, goyavier.
Shrub or tree to 11 m, without stilt roots; leaves opposite, k
entire; flowers pedicellate, fascicled in leaf mils; petals white,
feathery-villous; style persistent, pubescent.
Central America, northern South America, and Antilles; in
Dominica occasional in dry thickets to rainforest 20-750 m:
Calibishie (Hodge 138), Dublanc (Hodge 2547), Grand Bay
(Wilbur 7910, Hungry Hill Estate (Whitefoord 4428), La
Fanchette (Chambers 2730), La Plaine (Ernst 1366, Whitefoord
5369, Wilbur 8164), Laudat (Eggers 616, Hodge 2092),
Lisdara (Cooper 160), Morne Anglais (Nicolson 4108), Morne
Colla Anglais (Hodge 1170, Papa Bay (Chambers 2620,
Petite Soufriere Bay (Stern & Wusshausen 2479), Pointe
Baptiste (Beard 1469), Pointe Carib (Wilbur 7910, Pointe
Ronde (Hodge 2675), Ridgefield (Hodge 2123), Roche d’Or
(Stern & Wusshausen 2570, Salisbury (Webster 13494), South
Chiltern (Hodge 1565), Syndicate (Ernst 1994). Flowering
January-April, fruiting May-July, new shoots in August.
Ros ACEAE
See also Chrysobalanaceae. Howard (1988,4319) reported
cultivated loquat, Eriobotrya juponica (Thunberg) Lindley,
from Dominica with an exclamation mark, indicating he has
seen a voucher specimen.
Potentilla angelica Leichard, an unarmed herb with radiately
5-foliolate leaves, was once found at Ridgefield Estate (Hodge
2157) growing in a rose bed as a weed from “moss used for
packing a shipment of roses from England.” As Howard
(1964:281) pointed out, the species does not seem to persist.
1. Stems unarmed; leaves simple, entire; hit a drupe ....
........................... Prunus
1. Stems armed with prickles; leaves pinnately compound,
leaflets serrate; fruit an aggregate of drupelets ......
Rubus
...........................
Prunus Linnaeus
Prunus pleuradenia
Prunw pleuradenia Grisebach, 1860:231.-Howard, 1988,4:322
Tree to 15 m; leaves -10 cm x 5 cm, basal glands of lower
leaf surface usually closer to margin than midrib and a little
above the base; flowers white, in unbranched racemes.
Lesser Antilles; apparently rare in Dominica in montane
forests at 700 m: Laudat (Chambers 2688).
Rubus Linnaeus
Rubus rosifolius
Rubw rosifolius J.E. Smith, 1791, 3, pl. 60, ”rmaefoliw”.-Howard, 1988,
4325.
Fraise, wild raspberry.
Sprawling, armed f herbaceous shrub; leaves pinnately
compound; petals white; fruit red.
Native of Southeast Asia, naturalized in West Indies and
elsewhere; common in Dominica at midelevations: Laudat
(Ernst 1476, Lloyd 48, Nicolson 1973, Smith 10252), L’Impr6vue
(Narodny s.n.), Lisdara (Hodge 58l), Massacre River
waterfalls (Hodge 1340, Morne Gombo (Eggers s.n.), Roseau
River canyon (Fairchild s.n.), South Chiltern (Hodge 1488),
Trois Pitons (Hodge 580), Wallhouse (Eggers s.n.), Syndicate
(DHN!).
Fruits reported to be used to make jam. Said to have been
imported from Guadeloupe. Apparently the Eggers collections
(1880, 1881) are the first from Dominica. Adjanohoun et al.
(1985:167, pl. 134) reported leaf infusion use against tachycardia.
Howard (I.c., 324) attributed double-flowered Rubus
coronarius (Sims) Sweet to Dominica without an asterisk. All
specimens at hand seem to single-flowered.
RUBIACEAE
This family is easily recognized by opposite (even whorled),
entire and stipulate leaves and inferior ovary. The following
key is artificial, avoiding the important but difficult character of
the number of ovules per locule, the aim being to aid
identification.
Lyman B. Smith prepared the initial draft for this family and
Joseph Kirkbride, Jr., reviewed a later draft.
Coffee is much cultivated in Dominica.
Coffea urubicu Linnaeus tends to have smaller leaves (c20
cm long) than the others, a calyculus with small leafy
appendages, acute stipules, and leaves that are cuneate at the
base and acuminate at the apex: Lisdara (Cooper 156), South
Chiltern (Ernst 1315), Sylvania (Cooper 69, Hodge 2500).
Coffea canephora var. robusta (Linden ex De Wildeman)
Chevalier tends to have leaves >20 cm long, calyculus with
large, leafy appendages, acute stipules and leaves rounded to