[For Joseph Donat Surian, d. 1691, French physician who collected plants in the West Indies]

Shrubs, sometimes trees; young stems, leaf surfaces, pedicels, and calyces densely puberulent, some hairs on herbage glandular; older stems with exfoliating bark. Leaves mostly crowded toward ends of twigs (older ones soon falling); blade narrowly oblanceolate, base tapering, apex obtuse to acute. Inflorescences usually scarcely exserted beyond leaves. Flowers: sepals persistent, narrowly ovate, apex short-acuminate; petals mostly fallen by midday, spreading, yellow, elliptic-obovate, base tapering to claw, apex rounded, erose-dentate; stamens: outer whorl fertile, filaments proximally pilose, inner whorl sterile, less than 1/2 as long as fertile, pilose throughout; anthers rudimentary or none; pistils short-stipitate, pilose; style slender, glabrous, much longer than ovaries. Fruits brown, round, becoming dry, achenelike.

Species 1: Florida, Mexico, West Indies, Bermuda, Central America, South America, Asia, Africa, Indian Ocean Islands, Pacific Islands, Australia.

Lower Taxon

• Suriana maritima Linnaeus