Exostema spinosum is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is a shrub or tree with spiny branchlets, thickly leathery leaves, solitary flowers, and capsule fruits. The species is native to the Caribbean, and was described in 1790.
Taxonomy Exostema spinosum was described by Léon Le Vavasseur in 1790, and placed in the genus Cinchona. In 1897, Karl Wilhelm Leopold Krug and Ignatz Urban moved it to the genus Exostema.
Distribution Exostema spinosum is native to the wet tropical biome of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
Description Exostema spinosum is a shrub or tree that grows high. The branches are stout and greyish. The branchlets are slender and spiny.
The leaf stems are up to long. The leaves are thickly leathery, oval or oblong in shape, long, and wide.
The flowers are solitary, and grow on stems. The hypanthium is oblong, and long. The calyx has four lobes, which are up to long. The corolla is long, and has four lobes, which are long. The flowers have four stamens.
The fruit is a smooth, dark brown, oval-oblong capsule, measuring long.
Nomenclature In French, the species is known as . In Spanish, it is known as .
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