Catesbaea holacantha C. Wright ex Griseb.

Catesbaea holacantha C. Wright; Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 122
1866. A densely branched shrub, t he older branches stout, brownish, rimose, the younger branches olivaceous, terete, scaberulous or glabrate, the internodes 0.4-2 cm. long; spines stout, divaricate at almost a right angle, 1.3-2.5 cm. long; stipules minute, deciduous; leaves soon deciduous, the blades chartaceous, obovate or ovate or oblanceolate, 1-5 mm. long, obtuse, acute at the base, dull, the lateral nerves obsolete, the margin plane; flowers solitary, sessile or subsessile, 4-parted; hypanthium obovoid or subglobose, glabrous, the calyx-lobes triangular-subulate, shorter than the hypanthium; corolla 6-8 mm. long, the lobes ovate-oblong, equaling or slightly shorter than the tube; stamens adnate to the base of the corolla, the anthers exserted, slightly shorter than the filaments; ovules 3 or 4 in each cell; fruit globose or subglobose, 2-3 mm. long; seeds about 4, oval, 1.5 mm. long, dark-brown, reticulate.
Type locality: Near Mayari-abajo, Cuba.
Distribution: Dry thickets, Oriente and Camaguey, and perhaps elsewhere, Cuba.