Common name: Bracewood, Torchwood.
Torchwood is native to the Centra American and Caribbean region, its is small tree and and grows to around 3 meters in height. The tree is known to reach heights of about 5 meters in its native range. . The trees i saw planted inside TNAU are old and stand at around 2-3 meters in height. The bark of the tree is smooth and grey-black in color. The leafs are bunched together in whorls and seen mostly towards the end of branches. The leafs are obovate, spoon shaped with a rounded shape at its tip: the tip is slightly spiny. The leaf has smooth thick leathery appearance. The leaf stalk measure around 4mm and the leaf measure around 7.5 cm in length and around 5 cm in breadth. The inflorescence is in the form of a raceme, flowers are tubular, radially symmetric and bisexual. The flowers are fragrant, bell shaped and look very attractive. The fruit (appear with persistent calyx) is a green berry which turn dark orange red. On maturity they become brown and shrivel. The fruit is sticky Inside and encloses brown oval seeds (5mm in lenght). Jacquinia genus belong to the Primulaceae family and are ever green shrubs and trees found in Central America and Caribbean . The wood is saturated with resins and can burn for a long time hence the name “Torchwood”.
