Description
FLOWER PARTS
- Pedicel : erect, slender, 9-18mm long
- Ovary :
- Tube color : rose-purple
- Tube shape : subcylindric to obconic, usually glabrous inside and outside
- Tube dimensions : 3.5-6mm long x 1-1.5mm wide at base, more or less enlarged around nectary, 24mm wide at rim
- Sepal color upper : rose-purple
- Sepal color lower :
- Sepal shape : oblong to lanceolate
- Sepal tips : acuminate, spreading to reflexed at anthesis
- Sepal dimensions : 4-11mm long x 1.5-2.5mm wide
- Corolla opening color : lavender
- Corolla mature color :
- Corolla shape : petals lavender, lance-oblong to elliptic, broadly acute at base, acute at apex, erect to spreading
- Corolla silhouette :
- Petal margins :
- Corolla dimensions : 4-9mm long x 1.5-3mm wide
- Nectary : a smooth and irregularly lobed ring 1-1.6mm high at the base of the tube
- Stamens :
- Filaments : antisepalous 5-12mm long, antipetalous ones 3-9mm long, pink-purple
- Anthers : oblong, 1.5-2.3mm long x 1-1.5mm thick,
- Pistil :
- Style : 9-17 mm long, glabrous, pink
- Stigma : always exserted above the anthers, 1.5-3mm wide, with four blunt lobes 1-2mm long x lavender
MISCELLANEOUS
- Flower : single
- Flowers : erect and numerous in terminal, di- to trichotomously branched panicles, 10 to 25 cm long, 9 to 20 cm wide, flowers widened toward apex in bud
- Flower size :
- Flower display :
- Flower bud :
- Fruit : subglobose, 8-12mm long x 7-10mm wide, purple with a glaucous, waxy bloom when ripe
- Seed : 1-1.5mm long x 0.5-0.8mm wide
- Habit : erect, woody shrubs or small trees, mostly glabrous throughout
- Hardiness:
- Height : 3-4 m
- Light/Climate :
- Optimal light conditions :
- Remarks : hermaphroditic, flowering is mostly in the dry season, from December to May, but also well into the wet season
- Named : tree-like’
- Lookalikes :
- Year (of first description) : 1825
- Botanist : Sims
- Authors : John Sims 1825, Berry & Breedlove 1996
- Original publication : Bot. Mag. 53: t. 2620 1826
- Habitat : barranca vegetation, or moist ravines, of pine-oak forest in the Sierra Madre Occidental from Durango to Oaxaca and through the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt to Veracruz and then into northern Oaxaca
- Elevation : 1750-2500
- Native country : Mexico
- Synonyms : F. arborescens Sims, F. arborea Sessé & Moc., Schufia arborescens (Sims) Spach, F. arborescens forma parva Munz, F. arborescens forma tenuis Munz, F. arborescens var. megalantha Donn. Sm., F. arborescens var. arborescens, F. arborescens var. typica Munz
- Gametic chromosome number n = 11
FOLIAGE
- Leaves : opposite or three to four-verticillate, firmly membranous to subcoriaceous, petiole 12 to 30 mm long, stipules broadly triangular, occasionally connate, 0.8 to 1.2 mm long, 1.0 to 1.5 mm wide, deciduous
- Foliage color upper side : smooth, deep lustrous green
- Foliage color lower side : paler green
- Leaf dimensions : 10-21cm long x 4-8cm wide
- Leaf shape : elliptic to oblanceolate or obovate
- Leaf margin : entire
- Leaf tip : acute to acuminate
- Leaf base : acute to narrowly cuneate
- Pubescence :
- Veins :
- Stems :
- Branches : branchlets ascending, 10 to 40 cm long, 2 to 5 mm thick, subtriangular to quadrangular, older branches and main trunk 5 to 25 cm thick