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Maxwell's girdlepod

Mitracarpus maxwelliae

Maxwell's girdlepod
Photo: Carlos Pacheco, USFWS, Public domain
Family
Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Grows as
Shrub
Native range
Puerto Rico
Climate
wet tropical

About

Mitracarpus maxwelliae is a rare species of flowering plant in the coffee family known by the common name Maxwell's girdlepod. It is endemic to Puerto Rico, where it is known only from the Guánica Commonwealth Forest in Guánica. It grows in only one location in a coastal scrub forest and dwarf forest with limestone gravel substrates. Other plants in the habitat include Bucida buceras, Bursera simaruba, Exostema caribaeum, Coccoloba microstachya, Plumeria alba, and Pilosocereus armatus (syn. P. royenii var. amatus).

This is a small, dense, mound-forming shrub growing up to 20 centimeters in height. It has many four-angled branches with linear or lance-shaped leaves each 1 to 3 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a rounded head of tiny white flowers.

Other Mitracarpus plants

Tropical girdlepod · Cana gorda girdlepod · Girdlepod

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mitracarpus maxwelliae by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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