Trees & Plants

Fiddlewood

Boa handhuvaree

Citharexylum spinosum L.

Common in homesteads as an ornamental plant to The wood, which is close-grained and hard is used for general construction purpose, making furniture and musical to instruments. A decoction using young twigs is used in treating thrush in children. Th reat & damage: The tree is inva

Details

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uses: The wood, which is close-grained and hard is used for general construction purpose, making furniture and musical to instruments. A decoction using young twigs is used in treating thrush in children. Th reat & damage: The tree is invasive in habit and hence growing it for ornamental purposes may be restricted.
family: Verbenaceae
synonym: Citharexylum cinereum L., Citharexylum subserratum Sw.
description: Shrubs to small trees; up to 10 m tall, branchlets 4-angular, sometimes spiny. Leaves decussate-opposite, alternate × or subopposite, to 15 6 cm, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, acute, entire or dentate, usually with a pair of glands at base of lamina; petiole 0.5-1.5 cm long. Inflorescence Th axillary and terminal, recemiform or spicate, drooping; flowers many. Calyx cupular 5-lobed. Corolla white, 0.8-1 cm across, infundibular or hypocrateriform, usually 5-lobed, rarely 4 or 6 lobed, lobes slightly irregular; tube narrow, cylindric. Stamens 4. Ovary 4-loculed; ovule 1 in each locule; style terminal; stigma shortly 2-lobed. Fruit a drupe, partly enclosed by the enlarged calyx; pyrenes 2-loculed, 2-seeded.
native range: The United States (Florida), L., West Indies, South America
distribution: Introduced and naturalised in many other countries especially Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia and New Caledonia
english names: Fiddlewood · Spiny fiddlewood
flowering fruiting: April – September
occurrence maldives: Common in homesteads as an ornamental plant to