Chota Hamelia - scarlet bush
Hamelia patens
Summary
Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Angiospermae
Class: Dicotyledonae
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Genus: Hamelia
Species: H.patens
Scientific Name: Hamelia patens Jacq.
Common names
English: firebush, hummingbird bush, scarlet bush, and redhead.
Hindi: Chota Hamelia.
Description
- Habit and Habitat: An ornamental evergreen shrub having branched tap root system. Terrestrial habitat.
- Distribution: Native to the American subtropics and tropics. Its range extends from Florida in the southern United States to as to far south as Argentina.
- Morphology:
Leaf: Cauline, whorled, stipulate, petiolate, simple, ovate, entire, acute, unicostate reticulate venation.
Inflorescence: Polychasial cyme with each helicoid branch.
Flowers: Ebracteate, hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, pentamerous, epigynous. Calyx made up of sepals 5, gamosepalous, petaloid, reddish, and valvate. Corolla made up of 5 petals, gamopetalous, twisted, large and tubular.
Androecium: made up of 5 stamens, polyandrous, epipetalous, dithecous, basifixed, introse.
Gynoecium: composed of pentacarpellary, syncarpous, inferior pentalocular, axile placentation.
Fruit: valved, loculicidal capsule.
Seeds: Small, endospermic.
Flowering and Fruiting time: June-September. - Propagation: by seeds.
- Importance: Hummingbirds are attracted by its flowers and other birds feed on the fruit, both of which will also forage on small insects found in the vicinity, helping to keep down pests. These flowers are also fed on by butterflies, such as the statira sulphur (Aphrissa statira), which are attracted to red flowering plants. The fruits have a refreshing, acidic taste and are also edible by humans; in Mexico, they are made into a fermented drink.
- Location: Main Entarance Garden.
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