Bouvardia ternifolia explained

Bouvardia ternifolia, the firecracker bush, is a shrub widespread across much of Mexico, the range extending south into Honduras and north into the southwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico and Texas).^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Bouvardia ternifolia is a shrub up to 120 cm (4 feet) tall. It has dark green, narrowly egg-shaped leaves. Flowers are speculacular: long, tubular, bright scarlet, up to 10 cm (2 inches) long, in clusters at the ends of the branches. Hummingbirds frequently imbibe the nectar from the blooms.^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]}

Bouvardia ternifolia is widely cultivated as an ornamental because of its showy flowers. It contains Bouvardin which has demonstrated certain anti-cancerous activities.^{[11] [12] [13]}

External links

• photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Nuevo León in 1983
• photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Nuevo León in 1846

Notes and References

1. http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=23672 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Bouvardia ternifolia
2. http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Bouvardia%20ternifolia.png Biota of North America Program
3. CONABIO. 2009. Catálogo taxonómico de especies de México. 1. In Capital Nat. México. CONABIO, México D.F.
4. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/404497#page/529/mode/1up Hooker, William Jackson & Arnott, George Arnott Walker. 1840. Botany of Captain Beechey's Voyage 427, Bouvardia tolucana
5. Cavanilles, Antonio José. 1797. Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum 4: 3, pl. 305, Ixora ternifolia
6. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/113255#page/101/mode/1up Schlechtendal, Diederich Franz Leonhard von. 1854. Linnaea 26: 98. Bouvardia ternifolia
7. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=BOTE2 Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas, Native Plant Database, Bouvardia ternifolia
8. Correll, D. S. & M. C. Johnston. 1970. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas i–xv, 1–1881. The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson.
9. Davidse, G., M. Sousa Sánchez, S. Knapp & F. Chiang Cabrera. 2012. Rubiaceae a Verbenaceae. 4(2): i–xvi, 1–533. In G. Davidse, M. Sousa Sánchez, S. Knapp & F. Chiang Cabrera (eds.) Flora Mesoamericana Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.
10. Schlechtendal, Diederich Franz Leonhard von
11. Bailey, L.H. & E.Z. Bailey. 1976. Hortus Third i–xiv, 1–1290. MacMillan, New York.
12. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27758876#page/205/mode/1up color illustration of Bouvardia houtteana (syn of Bouvardia ternifolia), published 1855
13. Schlechtendal, Diederich Franz Leonhard von, in Planchon, Jules Émile. 1855. Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe 10: 149, t. 55.