Crusea Explained

Crusea (common name saucer flower)^[1] is a genus of angiosperms (flowering plants) in the family Rubiaceae.^[2] The genus is found in the south-western United States (Arizona and New Mexico), Mexico, and Central America. A few species are naturalized in Cuba and Puerto Rico.^[3]

Species

• Crusea andersoniorum Lorence – Oaxaca
• Crusea calcicola Greenm – San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Honduras
• Crusea calocephala DC. – widespread from Tamaulipas to Honduras
• Crusea coccinea DC.
  • Crusea coccinea var. breviloba Loes. – from Sinaloa to Guatemala and Belize
  • Crusea coccinea var. chiriquensis W.R.Anderson – Costa Rica and Panama
  • Crusea coccinea var. coccinea – from Jalisco to Oaxaca
• Crusea coronata B.L.Rob. & Greenm. – from Sonora to Oaxaca
• Crusea diversifolia (Kunth) W.R.Anderson – widespread from Arizona and New Mexico to Guatemala
• Crusea hispida (Mill.) Rob.
  • Crusea hispida var. grandiflora (Paul G.Wilson) W.R.Anderson – Guerrero, México State, Distrito Federal
  • Crusea hispida var. hispida – widespread across much of Mexico and naturalized in Cuba
• Crusea longiflora (Roem. & Schult.) W.R.Anderson – widespread across much of Mexico and naturalized in Puerto Rico
• Crusea lucida Benth. – Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco, Nayarit, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero
• Crusea megalocarpa (A.Gray) S.Watson – widespread across much of Mexico
• Crusea parviflora Hook. & Arn. – widespread across much of Mexico, south to Nicaragua
• Crusea psyllioides (Kunth) W.R.Anderson – widespread across much of Mexico
• Crusea pulcherrima Borhidi & Salas-Mor. – Oaxaca
• Crusea setosa (M.Martens & Galeotti) Standl. & Steyerm. – widespread across much of Mexico, south to Nicaragua
• Crusea wrightii A.Gray
  • Crusea wrightii var. angustifolia W.R.Anderson – central and southern Mexico
  • Crusea wrightii var. wrightii – widespread across much of Mexico, north into Arizona

External links

• Crusea in the World Checklist of Rubiaceae
• Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness, Western New Mexico University
• Irekani, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
• Gardening Europe
• Photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, isotype of Crusea wrightii var. angustifolia, collected in Guerrero

Notes and References

1. https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=CRDI12 USDA plants profile, Crusea diversifolia
2. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/96173#page/168/mode/1up Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal & Ludolf Karl Adelbert von Chamisso. 1830. Linnaea 5(1): 165
3. 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.