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Ehretia P.Browne
The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica p168 (1756)
Name Status: Current
Scientific Description
H.R. Coleman and Leslie Watson,
Friday 3 October 2008
Family Boraginaceae (sometimes separated in Ehretiaceae).
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs; deciduous. To 30 m high. Mesophytic. Leaves medium-sized; alternate; spiral; petiolate; non-sheathing; simple. Leaf blades entire; elliptic, or ovate, or obovate, or linear; pinnately veined (to arcuate, or veins oblique); cross-venulate. Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire, or dentate. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Hairs absent. Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes, or in corymbs, or in panicles. Inflorescences simple, or compound (cymes sometimes forming a panicle). The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; cymose, sometimes spiciform or capitate. Flowers pedicellate; bracteate, or ebracteate; minute to small; regular; 5 merous; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx present; 5; 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; blunt-lobed; campanulate, or tubular; regular; persistent; accrescent (inflated and enclosing the fruit), or non-accrescent. Corolla present; 5; 1 -whorled; gamopetalous; imbricate, or valvate; campanulate, or tubular; regular; green to yellow, or white to cream, or pink. Androecial members definite in number. Androecium 5. Androecial sequence not determinable. Androecial members adnate (epipetalous); all equal, or markedly unequal; free of one another; 1 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5; becoming exserted, or remaining included; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous; all alternating with the corolla members. Anthers versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; tetrasporangiate. Gynoecium 2 carpelled. The pistil usually 2 celled, or 4 celled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious; superior. Ovary plurilocular (often 4-lobed); 2 locular (morphologically), or 4 locular (ostensibly, by false septa). Locules secondarily divided by ‘false septa’. Gynoecium median; stylate. Styles 1; forked; apical; becoming exserted, or not becoming exserted. Stigmas 2; 2–4 - lobed; capitate (or elongate). Placentation basal. Ovules 1 per locule, or 2 per locule; pendulous, or ascending; non-arillate; hemianatropous.
Fruit and seed features. Fruit fleshy, or non-fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe (yellow, orange or red). The drupes with separable pyrenes (these one- or two seeded). Fruit 1–2 seeded. Seeds endospermic, or non-endospermic.
Etymology. After Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–70), born in Germany, but worked in England; one of the most distinguished botanical artists of the 18th century.
Taxonomic Literature
Randell, Barbara R., Adelaide Botanic Gardens (1993). New taxa and combinations in the Boraginaceae. Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Adelaide.
Wheeler, J.R. Rye, Barbara L. Koch, B.L. Wilson, A.J.G. Western Australian Herbarium (1992). Flora of the Kimberley region. Western Australian Herbarium. Como, W.A.
