Hamelia patens Jacquin, Enum. Pl. Carib. 16. 1960. Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bomb. 2:626. 1902; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed. 2. 289. 1924; Bailey, l.c.: Bor & Raizada, l.c. 96; Standley & Wiliams, l.c. 93.
S. NAZIMUDDIN AND M. QAISER
Evergreen shrub or small tree, up to c. 3 m, young branches angular, pubescent-puberulous or villous. Stipules 3-4 mm long. Leaves in whorls of 4, 3-12 x 2-4 cm, elliptic, oblong or oblong-ovate, glabrous-tomentose beneath, glabrate-glabrous above, rarely sparsely hairy, acute or acuminate, entire. Inflorescence terminal, compound scorpoid cymes. Flowers 2-3 cm long, scarlet, pedicel c. 1 mm long. Hypanthium bell shaped, 4.5 mm long, pubescent, lobes minute, deltoid. Corolla tubular, c. 1.5 cm long, 5-ridged, shortly 5-lobed. Stamens 5, filaments adnate near the middle of the corolla-tube, c. 3 mm long. Ovary surrounded by thick conical disc. Style 1.5 mm long. Fruit ellipsoid-oblong or globose, berry, c. 8 mm long, red in colour. Seeds brown or yellowish brown.
Fl. Per.: Almost throughout the year in different parts of the country.
Type: Domingo (Bominican Republic) Jacquin s.n. (P).
Distribution: A native of tropical America. Commonly cultivated throughout the tropics. Cultivated almost all over Pakistan.
