Casearia praecox Griseb.

  • Authority

    Sleumer, Hermann O. 1980. Flacourtiaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 22: 1-499. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Salicaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Casearia praecox Griseb.

  • Type

    Type. Wright 1889, Cuba Occid., fl (holotype, GOET, fragm B; isotypes, G, GH, K, P).

  • Synonyms

    Casearia eriophora C.Wright ex Griseb., Guidonia rosauriana (C.Wright ex Griseb.) M.Gómez, Guidonia praecox (Griseb.) M.Gómez, Guidonia eriophora (Wright ex Griseb.) M.Gómez, Ampelocera crenulata Urb., Gossypiospermum praecox (Griseb.) P.Wilson, Gossypiospermum eriophorum (C.Wright ex Griseb.) Urb.

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub or generally small to medium-sized tree, rarely up to 20.0 m high; trunk up to 40.0 cm diam; bark flaky, gray, ca 5.0 mm thick. Branchlets slender, tips puberulent or glabrous, early whitish-grayish-corticate, lenticels small, numerous. Leaves ovate to ovate-oblong, often inequilateral, apex subacuminate, tip acute or blunt, base broadly cuneate to rounded, (thin-chartaceous, glabrous except for some fugacious hairs on midrib beneath, minutely pellucid-punctate when young, practically impunctate with age, brown when dry, a little shining above, glandular-serrate-crenulate, 4.0-7.0 cm long, 2.0-3.0 cm broad, lateral nerves 6-7 pairs rather irregular, slightly prominent on both faces though mainly beneath, reticulation of veins and veinlets dense, finely raised on both faces; petiole (3.0-)5.0-6.0 mm long; stipules lanceolate-linear, membranous, 1.5-2.5 mm long, caducous. Inflorescences axillary, sessile or shortly pedunculate, its outer bracts scarious and connate to a kind of cup, inner ones membranous, free, ca 1.0 mm long. Flowers precocious, (10-)15-25 in a fascicle from each cup of bracts; pedicels very slender, articulate at base, glabrous, ca 8.0 mm long. Sepals 5, oblong, punctate, (subglabrous, 2.0(-2.5) mm long. Stamens (8-)10, alternately longer by the length of an anther; filaments glabrous, ca 2.5 mm long; anthers subglobose-elliptic, 0.5 mm diam. Disk-lobes short. Ovary ovoid, glabrous; style ca 1.0 mm long, shortly 3-fid. Capsule subglobose, ca 5.0 mm diam, splitting to 3 subcoriaceous glabrous valves; seeds 2 or 3, ovoid, 1.5 mm long, covered with rufous cottony hairs 2.0-3.0 mm long.

    Distribution and Ecology - Honduras (Morazán), Costa Rica (Guanacaste), Cuba, Colombia (Magdalena, Santander), N Venezuela; in dry tropophilous forest, pinares, wooded savannahs, rocky soil, also on limestone, up to 1500 m alt.

  • Discussion

    The wood is whitish-yellowish, hard, used to replace Boxwood for rules, exported as “West Indian Boxwood” from Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela.

    Literature on West Indian Boxwood: Sprague & Boodle, Kew Bull. 1914: 214-219. 1914; Record & Garrett, Boxwoods, Bull. n. 14 Yale School of Forestry, 1925; Record, Trop. Woods 32: 4. 1932.

  • Common Names

    Agracejo, Aguedita, Jia , zapatero

  • Distribution

    Honduras Central America| Morazán Honduras Central America| Costa Rica South America| Guanacaste Costa Rica Central America| Cuba South America| Piñar del Río Cuba South America| La Habana Cuba South America| Matanzas Cuba South America| Camagüey Cuba South America| Colombia South America| Magdalena Colombia South America| Antioquia Colombia South America| Santander Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Zulia Venezuela South America| Trujillo Venezuela South America| Distrito Federal Venezuela South America| Guárico Venezuela South America|