Coutarea hexandra

Coutarea hexandra is a small Neotropical tree or shrub in the coffee family Rubiaceae, growing 3 to 10 meters tall on slender stems with smooth pale grey bark. The leaves are opposite, simple, elliptic to ovate, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, with interpetiolar stipules. Showy pinkish or whitish funnel-shaped flowers about 4 to 7 centimeters long are produced in axillary cymes; the corolla is regular and six-lobed, an unusual character for the largely five-merous Rubiaceae and the source of the specific epithet. The fruit is a flattened obovoid capsule containing many flat winged seeds dispersed by wind. The species ranges through forests, savannas and disturbed land from central and southern Mexico through Central America and the Caribbean to northern Argentina, including much of the Amazon and Atlantic forest regions of Brazil. It is a rich source of neoflavonoids and their glycosides.