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Varronia bellonis
Serpentine manjack is a rare, endangered shrub endemic to Puerto Rico, known from only a handful of wild plants. It grows on serpentine soils and is best left to specialist conservation and botanic collections rather than home cultivation.
Varronia bellonis, commonly known as the serpentine manjack, is a species of flowering plant that was first reported in Susúa Puerto Rico in 1992, where a small group of five individuals was found. This endangered shrub is endemic to Puerto Rico. Due to habitat destruction, as of 1997, only 99 known plants remained in the wild, and the population of V. bellonis appeared to be in rapid decline. This discovery has spurred a reintroduction effort in Puerto Rico.
Varronia bellonis is a plant specialized in surviving on the serpentine soils of Puerto Rico. The shrub is typically found either on sunny banks along dirt roads growing in thickets of vegetation or in open saddles between limestone hills. The shrub is also known to inhabit sheer ravines and intermittent streams. Because this species is limited to specific geology types, the plant is therefore limited to an extent on the western half of the Island.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Varronia bellonis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
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.
