DC., Prodr. 4:542.1830
B. spinosa (L.) Schlecht. & Cham.
Erect, glabrous herb, less than 1 m tall; stems ± square,the corners ribbed, with occasional blunt short protuberancesca 0.3 mm high. Leaves sessile, clustered at nodes; stipules withseveral prominent bristles, fused to base of leaf; blades linear tolinear-lanceolate, acute, gradually tapered to base, the longerones 4-7 cm long, less than 8 mm wide. Flowers white, in denseglobose clusters 1-2 cm diam, terminal or in upper leaf axils,interspersed with slender white bristles; calyx lobes 2, slender,ca 1.3 mm long, persistent, pubescent at base; corolla ca 2 mmlong, lobed to near middle, the lobes 4, spreading; stamenswith the filaments fused to tube, recurved at apex in bud; anthersheld somewhat below the apparently receptive stigma, becomingexserted; style shorter than corolla. Capsules ca 2 mm long and 1mm wide, pubescent, splitting medially at maturity, thepericarp persistent after seed falls out through the slitopened between calyx lobes; seeds 2-1 per carpet, oblong, ca 2 mmlong and 0.5 mm wide, dark brown. Croat 12884.
Occasional, in clearings. Flowers from October to January,mostly in December at the beginning of the dry season. The fruitsmature in about 1 month.
Distinguished from other Borreria by its habit and thebilobed calyx.
Mexico to Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela; West Indies. InPanama, ecologically variable; known from tropical moist andtropical wet forests at low elevations all along the Atlantic slopeand in Chiriqui, Herrera, and Panama, from tropical dry forest inPanama (Taboga Island), from tropical wet forest in Veraguas, andfrom lower montane wet forest in Chiriqui.
See Fig. 513.
