Monographs Details:
Authority:
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Family:
Malpighiaceae
Malpighiaceae
Description:
Species Description - Tree 3-15 m tall; bark gray, smooth or finely fissured; twigs cylindrical, densely sericeous when young. Leaf blades 5-15 x 1.8-5.5 cm, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, chartaceous, sparsely covered with appressed, rusty hairs especially along midvein, secondary veins prominent on lower surface, the margins entire obtuse to acute, the base obtuse; petioles 5-15 mm long, sericeous. Flowers in terminal, ascending racemes, 4-10 cm long; bracts minute, subulate; pedicels 7-8 mm long, slender, sericeous; calyx yellow, of 5 biglandular sepals, the glands fleshy, elongate, whitish to yellowish; petals spreading, yellow, turning orange in age, 5- 8 mm long, long-clawed, with a widely ovate to reniform limb, the posterior petal with 2 or more marginal glands at apex of the claw; anthers yellowish; ovary tricarpellate, sericeous, the styles 3, glabrous, free to base. Drupe nearly globose to obovoid, 10- 12 mm diam., glabrous, apiculate at apex, turning from green to yellow, becoming yellowish brown at maturity.
Distribution and Ecology - A common tree of moist forests. Bordeaux area (A3820), Cruz Bay Quarter along Center Line Road (A2939), Rosenberg (B319). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda; Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Lesser Antilles, northern South America, south to Bolivia.
Species Description - Tree 3-15 m tall; bark gray, smooth or finely fissured; twigs cylindrical, densely sericeous when young. Leaf blades 5-15 x 1.8-5.5 cm, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, chartaceous, sparsely covered with appressed, rusty hairs especially along midvein, secondary veins prominent on lower surface, the margins entire obtuse to acute, the base obtuse; petioles 5-15 mm long, sericeous. Flowers in terminal, ascending racemes, 4-10 cm long; bracts minute, subulate; pedicels 7-8 mm long, slender, sericeous; calyx yellow, of 5 biglandular sepals, the glands fleshy, elongate, whitish to yellowish; petals spreading, yellow, turning orange in age, 5- 8 mm long, long-clawed, with a widely ovate to reniform limb, the posterior petal with 2 or more marginal glands at apex of the claw; anthers yellowish; ovary tricarpellate, sericeous, the styles 3, glabrous, free to base. Drupe nearly globose to obovoid, 10- 12 mm diam., glabrous, apiculate at apex, turning from green to yellow, becoming yellowish brown at maturity.
Distribution and Ecology - A common tree of moist forests. Bordeaux area (A3820), Cruz Bay Quarter along Center Line Road (A2939), Rosenberg (B319). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda; Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Lesser Antilles, northern South America, south to Bolivia.
Discussion:
Byrsonima coriacea sensu Little & Wadsworth, 1964, nonSw., 1788