Frangula sphaerosperma(Sw.) Kartesz & Gandhi

West Indian buckthorn

WFO wfo-0000691940 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Frangula sphaerosperma, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. a Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-28 / obs. 191440124
Frangula sphaerosperma, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. b Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114023695
Frangula sphaerosperma, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. c Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 104688315
Frangula sphaerosperma, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. d Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191428775
Frangula sphaerosperma, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. e Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114023725
Frangula sphaerosperma, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. f Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191440070
Frangula sphaerosperma, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. g Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114023755
Frangula sphaerosperma, photographed by Nicolás Baresch Uribe
fig. h Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114023797

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 1046473
Filed as
Frangula sphaerosperma (Sw.) Kartesz & Gandhi
Det. by
Pool, A., (MO), Missouri Botanical Garden
Collected
W. R. Maxon & E. P. Killip 1920-03-22
Origin
JM
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Frangula sphaerosperma is native: Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northwest, Bolivia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela Mexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NorthwestBoliviaBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Frangula sphaerosperma, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northwest AGW SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Southeast MXT NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 21 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Ceanothus sphaerocarpus DC.
  • Frangula atagualpae Grubov
  • Frangula boliviana (Rusby) Grubov
  • Frangula nervosa Grubov
  • Frangula peruviana Grubov
  • Frangula polymorpha var. glabra Reissek
  • Frangula polymorpha var. latifolia Chodat & Hassl.
  • Frangula polymorpha var. polymorpha
  • Frangula polymorpha var. pubescens Reissek
  • Frangula polymorpha var. tomentosa Reissek
  • Frangula sphaerocarpa (DC.) Griseb.
  • Rhamnus boliviana Rusby
  • Rhamnus jelskii Zahlbr.
  • Rhamnus jelskii Szyszył.
  • Rhamnus polymorpha Weberb.
  • Rhamnus polymorpha var. glabra (Reissek ex Mart.) Loefgr.
  • Rhamnus pubescens (Ruiz & Pav.) Triana & Planch.
  • Rhamnus pubescens var. glabrescens Kuntze
  • Rhamnus pubescens var. grandifolia Perkins
  • Rhamnus sectipetala Mart.
  • Rhamnus sphaerosperma Sw.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.