Palo De Hierro

Ixora ferrea (Jacq.) Benth. Linnaea 23: 447. 1850
Sideroxyloides ferreiim Jacci. Sel. Stirp. Am. 19. 1763. Siderodendron ferrenm Lam. Tab. Kncyc. 1: 282. 1791. Siderodendron triflorum ahl, Kclog. I: 10. 1796. Pavelta qiiinqueflora Sesse & Moc. Fl. Mex. ed. 2. 18. 1894.
A shrub or tree, sometimes 10 meters high, glabrous throughout, the branches terete, grayish, the branchlets compressed, the internodes short or elongate; stipules 4-9 mm. long, the base broad, acuminate or subulate-cuspidate; petioles stout, 3-12 mm. long; leaf-blades narrowly oblong-elliptic, ovate-oblong, or lance-oblong, 7.5-19.5 cm. long, 2.5-7.5 cm. wide, short-acuminate, acute or short-acuminate at the base, chartaceous, sublustrous, yellowish-green above, the venation prominulous or the costa sulcate, scarcely paler beneath, the costa slender, prominent, the lateral nerves very slender, prominulous, about 1 2 on each side, the veins laxly reticulate, the margin plane or subrevolute; inflorescence axillary, sessile or subsessile, few -flowered, cymose-fasciculate, the flowers short-pedicellate or sessile, the bractlets minute; calyx and hypanthium 1.5 mm. long, the calyx short, shallowly dentate; corolla white, the tube very slender, 8-9 mm. long, the 4 lobes oval, obtuse, 3 mm. long; anthers exserted, 1.2 mm. long, 6-8 mm. wide, at first yellow, becoming red; seeds about 5 mm. long, dark-brown, deeply concave on the ventral side.
Type locality: Martinique.
Distribution: Forests or thickets, often in the higher mountains, Cuba, Porto Rico, Hispaniola, and the Lesser Antilles; also in Venezuela and the Guianas; reported, very probably in error, from Mexico and Panama.