''Condalia hookeri'', called the Brazilian bluewood, is a widespread species of flowering plant in the family
Rhamnaceae
The Rhamnaceae are a large Family (biology), family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales.
The family contains about 55 genera and 950 specie ...
, native to Texas and eastern Mexico.
It is a thorny shrub or small tree reaching but usually much shorter.
Typically it is found growing in marginal habitats such as limestone slopes, sandstone bluffs,
lunettes
A lunette (French ''lunette'', 'little moon') is a crescent- or half-moon–shaped or semi-circular architectural space or feature, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void.
A lunette may also be ...
, shell ridges, juniper-dominated woodlands, or along watercourses, often in clayey or sandy soils, at elevations from .
It may come to dominate an area as a thorny scrubland.
Names
''Condalia hookeri'' goes by a number of misleading common names, including Brazilian bluewood, bluewood condalia, brasil, brasilwood, bluewood, logwood, purple haw, Edwards' bluewood, and capul negro, some of which are shared by other members of its genus.
Some of the names refer a blue dye that is obtained from its dense wood.
References
hookeri
Flora of Texas
Flora of Northeastern Mexico
Flora of Veracruz
Plants described in 1962
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