Catesbaea parviflora

Catesbaea parviflora Sw.

Common Names: Small Flower Lily Thorn, Dune Lily Thorn

Family: Rubiaceae

Habit: Catesbaea parviflora grows as a slender many branched shrub to small tree up to 2 m in height with spines (1-2 cm long) in leaf axils.  The leaves are opposite, to 1 cm long. The leaves are orbicular to obovate/oblanceolate with an entire leaf margin and a rounded or mucronate leaf apex.

The complete, perfect, actinomorphic, sessile flowers occur in leaf axils. The calyx and corolla are fused at their base into a hypanthium.  The calyx has 4 green glabrous sepals. The corolla has 4 fused, white to yellow petals forming a tube. There are 4 stamens fused to the top of the hypanthium.  The inferior ovary has 2 locules and multiple ovules. The fruit is a white berry with 4 red/purple tips surrounding the remnant of the style/stigma.

Habitat: Catesbaea parviflora grows in Dry Broadleaf Evergreen Formations (coppice), Dunes, Pine Woodlands and near saline flats and Mangroves.

Distribution: Catesbaea parviflora occurs throughout the Lucayan Archipelago, the Greater Antilles, Leeward Islands, and Florida.

Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage: Catesbaea parviflora is not used medicinally in the Lucayan Archipelago.