Colleteria includes two poorly known species found in humid forest in the Antilles. The relationships of Colleteria within the Rubiaceae are unclear. This genus is characterized by its shrub or small tree habit, its small interpetiolar ligulate stipules that are weakly connate along their margins and persistent to deciduous, its petiolate medium-sized to small leaves sometimes with pubescent pit-type domatia in the axils of the secondary veins on the undersurface, its terminal inflorescences that are cymose and pedunculate, its pedicellate homostylous flowers with short subtruncate calyx limbs, its funnelform white corollas with four to six imbricated lobes, its exserted anthers and stigmas, and its somewhat small, fleshy, white fruits that contain two hemispherical pyrenes. The tissues lack raphides, and the ovules are solitary in each locule on an apical placenta. The corolla was reported by Taylor (2003) to frequently vary in number of lobes on an individual plant. The stamens are inserted in the corolla well above the base. The fruits are ellipsoid to ovoid. The stipules are often markedly resinous and the calyx limb has well developed colleters on its internal (adaxial) surface.

The species of Colleteria were long included in Chione, but Taylor (2003a, 2003b) documented several differences between these and described a new genus for these two Antillean species. Chione includes one widespread variable species, and differs from Colleteria in its acute stipules, its stamens inserted at the base of the corolla, its larger, often ovoid, red to black fruits with a single 2-locular pyrene.

After the description of Colleteria, concerns were raised that the genus name was not valid under the International Code of Nomenclature (ICBN) because the name was a morphological term used for a structure found in a particular group of insects, and the replacement name Wandersong was published for this genus. However the corresponding section of the Code, Art. 20.2, specifies that "The name of a genus may not coincide with a Latin technical term in use in morphology at the time of publication", and the morphological term of concern here, "colleterium" (plural: colleteria), is derived from the Greek word κολλάω, to glue, not from Latin. ICBN Art. 20.2 Example 5 further specifically notes that genus names based on Greek morphological terms are valid. The Latin word for “glue” is "gluten" (noun) or glutinare (verb), which is distinct from the Greek term. Thus, the later name Wandersong is here considered an illegitimate superfluous name.

Author: C.M. Taylor.
The content of this web page was last revised on 30 October 2015.
Taylor web page: http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/taylor.shtml

• Taylor, D. W. 2003. A taxonomic revision of the genus Chione (Rubiaceae). Syst. & Geogr. Pl. 73(2): 171–198.
• Taylor, D. W. 2003. Colleteria (Rubiaceae), a new genus from the Caribbean. Syst. & Geogr. Pl. 73(2): 199–208.
• Taylor, D. W. 2014. Wandersong (Rubiaceae), a new genus from the Greater Antililes. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 8(2): 529–530.