Locustberry Locustberry

Malpighia lucida Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8, Malpighia no. 9. 1768; Byrsonima biflora Grisebach; B. cuneata (Turczaninow) P. Wilson; M. cuneata Turczaninow

Shrubs or trees, 1–6 m. Leaves often clustered at tips of shoots; blade obovate, larger blades 20–30 × 9–19(–24) mm, base cuneate or gradually narrowed, apex rounded or obtuse, surfaces very sparsely sericeous to soon glabrate. Inflorescences 2.5–5 cm, 6–10(–16)-flowered. Pedicels straight in bud, somewhat decurved in fruit. Flowers: anthers glabrous, locules rounded at apex, connectives equaling or exceeding locules to 0.3 mm; ovary glabrous. Drupes 8–12 mm diam. (dried), ovoid to spheroid with short apical beak when immature, glabrous.

Flowering most commonly Jan–Jun; fruiting Feb–Jul. Hammocks in dry rocky pinelands and sandy palm-pine woods; 0–10 m; Fla.; West Indies (Bahamas, Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, Virgin Islands).

Byrsonima lucida, native in the flora area only to Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, is widely cultivated in peninsular Florida as an ornamental shrub; it probably has little or no tolerance for frost or temperatures below freezing.