Be especially careful around our very robust specimen of Jacquinia macrocarpa Cav. ssp. pungens (A. Gray) B. StÂhl, a dense shrub that is growing happily next to our "1984 Olympics" wrought-iron fence at the southern end of the Mediterranean section. The plant looks harmless from a distance, but the evergreen, narrowly lanceolate leaf (four to seven centimeters long) is pungent--that is, it possesses a needle-like (sclerified) tip. Until recently, this species, originating from thorn scrub habitats with other prickly plants of the Sonoran Desert region in Mexico, was called J. pungens, referring to that key leaf feature.
Leaf arrangement is helically alternate, with leaves that can be described either as sclerophyllous (hard and tough) or coriaceous (leathery). Within the leaf, heavily lignified fiber cells (sclerenchyma) are positioned lengthwise as a continuous tissue just beneath the upper epidermis (hypodermis), in bundles next to the lower epidermis, and completely surrounding the midvein. The piercing leaf apex is a fibrous extension of the midvein.
The flower of this jacquinia is both beautiful--although only about one centimeter broad--and perplexing. At first glance, there appear to be ten tangerine-colored petals, but experts tell us that only five are petal lobes. The five smaller ones are petal-like stamens, called staminodia. Around the short style in the center, five fertile stamens conceal a pool of nectar within the corolla tube around the ovary. Almost unnoticeable are the thin, roundish sepals, which overlap like shingles (imbricately) and closely surround the ovary before it forms as a marble-sized fruit.
The genus Jacquinia was named by Linnaeus (1763) to recognize Nicolaus Joseph Jacquin, a Dutch-born Austrian botanist who, in 1760, published on plants that he collected in the West Indies using the then new system of binomial nomenclature. One of the staunchest and earliest supporters of the Linnean movement, Jacquin was also the person who collected and illustrated a species of this genus. Jacquinia belongs to a small family of plants, the Theophrastaceae, consisting of approximately 100 species. Theophrastus, called the Father of Botany (370-287 B.C.), was a Greek naturalist, a student of Aristotle and, therefore, of Plato; he is author of the oldest existing botanical work, Historia plantarum, and ultimately described nearly 500 species of plants, especially cultivated types, many obtained for him in southern Asia by Alexander the Great.