Flora of North America species comparison

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Malpighia glabra

wild crapemyrtle
Habit Shrubs or small trees, 1–6 m. Leaf blades narrowly to broadly elliptic or ovate, larger blades 3–10 × 1.5–5 cm, apex usually acuminate, occasionally acute, surfaces glabrous or bearing a few fine, straight, appressed hairs.
Inflorescences

1.5–3(–3.5) cm, (3–)4–10(–12)-flowered.
Flowers

petals pink or pink and white or lavender-pink;

anthers glabrous;

ovary glabrous;

styles nearly straight, parallel or divergent distally, ± alike.
Drupes

7–13 mm diam., spheroid.
2n

= 20 (Costa Rica).

Malpighia glabra
Phenology Flowering Sep–Apr; fruiting Oct–May.
Habitat Roadside thickets, sandy plains.
Elevation 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
TX; e Mexico; s Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies (Greater Antilles)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Malpighia glabra, native in southernmost Texas, is rarely cultivated as an ornamental shrub in Texas, but many of the plants sold under that name are actually M. emarginata. Malpighia emarginata resembles M. glabra, but its leaves are usually rounded or obtuse at the apex and often emarginate or apiculate, and some pairs of leaves are crowded in dense shoots with very short internodes, while others are separated by much longer internodes (versus all more or less evenly spaced in M. glabra).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 359.
Parent taxa Malpighiaceae > Malpighia
Synonyms M. punicifolia, M. semeruco
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 425. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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