Plant Listings

Croton linearis Jacq.

Common Name: Granny Bush, Bay Wormwood, White Granny Bush, Rosemary

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Habit: Croton linearis grows as a small to medium shrub up to 2 m in height. The leaves are arranged alternately, linear-elongate, with an entire margin, an obtuse leaf apex and glands at the leaf base. The adaxial surface is glabrous and the abaxial surface yellowish tomentose.

Croton linearis is dioecious. The incomplete, imperfect, actinomorphic, flowers are arranged in axillary or terminal racemes. Staminate flowers have 5 unfused, green, ciliate, sepals in the calyx. The corolla has 5 unfused, white petals. There are 16 stamens and no carpel. The carpellate flowers have 5 unfused sepals in the calyx. The corolla has 5 unfused white petals. There are no stamens. The superior ovary has 3 locules. The fruit is a 3-parted capsule.

Habitat: Croton linearis grows on a Holocene substrate in Dry Broadleaf Evergreen Formations (coppice) most typically in Shrublands and in Dunes.

Distribution: Croton linearis occurs throughout all island groupings in the Lucayan Archipelago, the entire Caribbean region, and south Florida.

Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage: Croton linearis is used medicinally in obstetric and gynecological matters, pain, gastrointestinal issues, circulatory problems.