Habit: Trema lamarckiana grows as a large shrub to small tree up to 9 meters in height, typically to 3 meters. The leaves are arranged alternately to 7 cm in length, ovate with an acute leaf apex, serrate margin and 3 prominent mid-veins. The leaf surface is covered in stiff hairs giving it a rough texture.
Trema lamarckiana is monoecious and hermaphroditic. The incomplete, imperfect/perfect actinomorphic flowers are arranged in clusters at leaf axils. The calyx has 5 unfused greenish, hirsute sepals. There is no corolla. Staminate flowers have five stamens and a nonfunctional ovary. The perfect flowers have 5 stamens and a superior ovary with a single locule and seed. The fruit is a pink drupe at maturity.
Habitat: Trema lamarckiana grows in Human Altered environments such as roadsides, construction areas, and abandoned fields. It may also grow along the edges and occasionally the interior of Dry Broadleaf Evergreen Formations – Forests/Woodlands/Shrublands (coppice).
Distribution: Trema lamarckiana occurs on all island groupings within the Lucayan Archipelago as well as Florida and the entire Caribbean region.
Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage: Trema lamarckiana is used in strengthening and aphrodisiac teas.