Chiococca alba
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West Indian milkberry | |
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Scientific classification | |
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C. alba
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Binomial name | |
Chiococca alba |
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Synonyms | |
Chiococca bermudiana S.Br.[2] Chiococca racemosa L. |
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Chiococca alba is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family, Rubiaceae, that is native to Florida and extreme southern tip of Texas in the United States,[3] Bermuda,[2] Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Galápagos, and tropical South America. Common names include David's milkberry, West Indian milkberry, cahinca[4] and West Indian snowberry.[5] The specific epithet, alba, means "white" in Latin and refers to the color of its fruits.[6]
Contents
Description
West Indian milkberry is an evergreen[4] woody vine or scrambling shrub that often grows on other vegetation and may reach a height of 6 m (20 ft).[5] The opposite, simple leaves are 5–11 cm (2.0–4.3 in) long and may be elliptic to ovate or broadly lanceolate in shape. Yellow, bell-shaped flowers up to 1 cm (0.39 in) in length appear throughout the year[7] on racemes or panicles of six of to eight.[8] The fruit is a white drupe 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) in diameter[7] that generally contains two dark brown seeds.[5]
Taxonomy
Lonicera alba was described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus.[9] It was moved to Chiococca in 1893 by A. S. Hitchcock,[1] and is considered the type species of that genus.[10] Stewardson Brown described the Bermuda population of the plant as a new species, C. bermudiana, in 1909 due to its lighter green and larger leaves, larger berries, and wider and longer pedicels. Many authorities consider C. bermudiana a synonym of C. alba.[2]
Uses
C. alba is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental for its dark green, evergreen foliage and white drupes. It is used in espalier and grown on trellises.[8] The roots have several medicinal uses, including as a laxative, diuretic, emetic, and antidiarrhoeal.[5] The plant was sold commercially in Europe and the United States for those purposes at one time.[11]
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
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Wikispecies has information related to: Chiococca alba |
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- Articles with dead external links from October 2010
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Chiococceae
- Plants described in 1893
- Flora of Mexico
- Flora of the Caribbean
- Flora of Florida
- Flora of Bermuda
- Flora of the Bahamas
- Flora of Galápagos
- Flora of Central America
- Flora of Texas
- Flora of South America
- Medicinal plants of Central America
- Antidiarrhoeals
- Medicinal plants of North America
- Medicinal plants of South America