Palicourea rigida

Palicourea rigida, the douradinha-do-campo or 'erva-de-bugre', is a small, stiff-stemmed evergreen shrub of the Rubiaceae characteristic of the Brazilian cerrado and Llanos savannas of northern South America. Plants reach 0.5–2 m with thick, corky, deeply fissured bark on the underground xylopodium and stout, erect aerial stems that are often unbranched. Leaves are opposite, decussate, coriaceous, broadly elliptic to obovate, 8–20 cm long and 5–12 cm wide, with a rounded to subcordate base and a sharply mucronate apex; the upper surface is glabrous and the lower surface is glaucous with prominent reticulate venation. Interpetiolar stipules are persistent and bilobed. Inflorescences are large terminal panicles 10–20 cm long with bright yellow-orange, tubular, slightly curved corollas 1.5–2.5 cm long that are pollinated by hummingbirds. The fruit is a small drupe 5–8 mm in diameter, ripening from green through orange to deep blue-black, with two pyrenes. Flowering occurs mainly in the dry season (July–October).