Jambosa jambos (L.) Millsp.
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
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Family
Myrtaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - So extensively naturalized as to be, perhaps, the most abundant small tree in Porto Rico, the Rose Apple is especially plentiful on moist hillsides and along streams, sometimes forming extensive thickets. It is widely naturalized nearly throughout tropical America, introduced many years ago from its home in tropical Asia. With luxuriant foliage of bright green, narrow leaves, large flowers, with very many, long, white stamens, and large red fruits, the tree is attractive and interesting, and competes with native shrubs and trees, sometimes crowding them out. Its wood is available for charcoal. Jambos is a Malabar name, accepted for this genus by the French botanist Adanson in 1763, the species here illustrated typical, and the only one wild on Porto Rico. About 50 species, perhaps more, exist in tropical parts of the Old World, where they are all native. Their leaves are leathery in texture, opposite, punctate, their mostly large flowers clustered. The obconic, or top-shaped calyx, attached to the ovary, has from 4 to 8 lobes; the petals are as many as the calyx-lobes; the numerous, very slender stamens are much longer than the petals; the 2-celled, or 3-celled ovary contains many ovules; the style is simple, the stigma small. The fruit is a large, many-seeded berry, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes. Jambos Jambos may become about 10 meters high, but is usually smaller; the twigs, leaves and flowers are without hairs. The lance-shaped, finely netted-veined leaves are from 10 to 20 centimeters long, with stalks from 5 to 9 millimeters long. The showy flowers are few together in terminal clusters, the individual ones on stalks about 10 millimeters long; the tube of the calyx is about 10 millimeters long, with broad, rounded lobes; the petals are from 1 to 1.5 centimeters long, the stamens 3 or 4 centimeters long. The fruit is from 3 to 4 centimeters in diameter.
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Discussion
Poma rosa Rose Apple Family Myrtaceae Myrtle Family Eugenia Jambos Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 470. 1753. Jambosa vulgaris De Candolle, Prodromus 3: 286. 1828. Jambos Jambos Millspaugh, Field Museum Botany 2: 80. 1900.