Comprehensive Description

Eugenia foetida (the boxleaf stopper or Spanish stopper) is a small evergreen tree that typically grows to about 6 m in height. It has smooth gray (sometimes mottled) bark and a straight trunk. It bears mildly fragrant small, white flowers with many white threadlike stamens from mid-summer to early autumn followed by black to dark brown fruits that are popular with birds (Elias 1980; Nelson 1994). This is the dominant shrub on some of the Florida Keys (Elias 1980) and according to Little et al. (1974), is one of the commonest and most widespread members of the family Myrtaceae (a major tropical plant family) in the Greater Antilles.