Monographs Details:
Authority:
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Family:
Chrysobalanaceae
Chrysobalanaceae
Description:
Species Description - Exceptional among the native trees and shrubs of Porto Rico in bearing fruit edible by man, the plums of this species have a sweet, pulpy fleshy which is pleasant to the taste, and much used for dulces and preserves; the seeds, obtained by crushing the hard pits, are also edible, and yield an oil; the leaves and the bark are astringent, the wood hard and brown. It has a very wide range, from Florida, and the Bahamas and Mexico, south to Brazil and has been recorded as also inhabiting tropical Africa. In Porto Rico it is abundant at lower elevations near the coasts, and especially plentiful in the white-sand areas of the northern coastal plain, where it locally forms colonies, but it grows also higher up in the hills, and on the islands Vieques and Cayo Icacos, the latter taking its name from this plant. Chrysobalanus (Greek, golden date, or acorn) is a genus established by Linnaeus, the species here illustrated typical, it and a closely related one American, another described from tropical Africa. They are small evergreen trees or shrubs, with broad, alternate leaves, firm in texture, the small, white, or greenish flowers clustered. The calyx has a bell-shaped, or top-shaped tube, and a 5-lobed limb; there are 5, separate petals; the numerous stamens have slender filaments; the 1-celled ovary contains only 2 ovules; the very slender style is borne at the base or on one side of the ovary. The fruit has pulpy flesh enclosing a hard, ridged stone. Chrysobalanus Icaco (aboriginal name) may attain a height of about 10 meters, with a trunk 30 centimeters in diameter, but is usually much lower, and often a shrub; the bark is thin and brown, the slender twigs smooth, or nearly so. The short-stalked leaves are elliptic, nearly orbicular or broadest above the middle, smooth and shining, from 4 to 8 centimeters long, blunt, rounded,or sometimes notched. The flowers are numerous, or several, in stalked clusters shorter than the leaves; the calyx is hairy, with pointed lobes about 2.5 millimeters long; the wedge-shaped, white petals are about 5 millimeters long. The plums are white, pink, or purple, but scarcely golden, from 2 to 4 centimeters long, and oval or nearly globular. The other American species, Chrysobalanus pellocarpus, widely distributed in the West Indies, is also native of Porto Rico, growing on hillsides in moist or wet districts. It is seldom more than 2 meters high, its petals spatulate, its fruits oblong, or obovoid, purple, from 1.5 to 2 centimeters long. It has been classified by some authors as a race of Chrysobalanus Icaco, and that may be preferable to regarding it as a distinct species.
Species Description - Exceptional among the native trees and shrubs of Porto Rico in bearing fruit edible by man, the plums of this species have a sweet, pulpy fleshy which is pleasant to the taste, and much used for dulces and preserves; the seeds, obtained by crushing the hard pits, are also edible, and yield an oil; the leaves and the bark are astringent, the wood hard and brown. It has a very wide range, from Florida, and the Bahamas and Mexico, south to Brazil and has been recorded as also inhabiting tropical Africa. In Porto Rico it is abundant at lower elevations near the coasts, and especially plentiful in the white-sand areas of the northern coastal plain, where it locally forms colonies, but it grows also higher up in the hills, and on the islands Vieques and Cayo Icacos, the latter taking its name from this plant. Chrysobalanus (Greek, golden date, or acorn) is a genus established by Linnaeus, the species here illustrated typical, it and a closely related one American, another described from tropical Africa. They are small evergreen trees or shrubs, with broad, alternate leaves, firm in texture, the small, white, or greenish flowers clustered. The calyx has a bell-shaped, or top-shaped tube, and a 5-lobed limb; there are 5, separate petals; the numerous stamens have slender filaments; the 1-celled ovary contains only 2 ovules; the very slender style is borne at the base or on one side of the ovary. The fruit has pulpy flesh enclosing a hard, ridged stone. Chrysobalanus Icaco (aboriginal name) may attain a height of about 10 meters, with a trunk 30 centimeters in diameter, but is usually much lower, and often a shrub; the bark is thin and brown, the slender twigs smooth, or nearly so. The short-stalked leaves are elliptic, nearly orbicular or broadest above the middle, smooth and shining, from 4 to 8 centimeters long, blunt, rounded,or sometimes notched. The flowers are numerous, or several, in stalked clusters shorter than the leaves; the calyx is hairy, with pointed lobes about 2.5 millimeters long; the wedge-shaped, white petals are about 5 millimeters long. The plums are white, pink, or purple, but scarcely golden, from 2 to 4 centimeters long, and oval or nearly globular. The other American species, Chrysobalanus pellocarpus, widely distributed in the West Indies, is also native of Porto Rico, growing on hillsides in moist or wet districts. It is seldom more than 2 meters high, its petals spatulate, its fruits oblong, or obovoid, purple, from 1.5 to 2 centimeters long. It has been classified by some authors as a race of Chrysobalanus Icaco, and that may be preferable to regarding it as a distinct species.
Discussion:
Icaco Coco Plum Plum Family Chrysobalanus Icaco Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 513. 1753.
Icaco Coco Plum Plum Family Chrysobalanus Icaco Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 513. 1753.
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