Coccoloba uvifera (L.) L.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Polygonaceae

• Scientific Name

  Coccoloba uvifera (L.) L.

• Description

  Species Description - As in all probability the first land plant of America seen by Columbus, this common tropical coastal tree is of especial interest. That this is true is borne out by observations made by Doctors Britton and Millspaugh during their botanical explorations of the Bahama Islands, preparatory to the publication of their "Bahama Flora" in 1920. It will be recalled that in 1891, the land-fall of Columbus was determined to have been on Watlings Island, and a monument was at that time erected there, on a headland, by the Chicago Tribune anticipating the Chicago Exposition in 1893. This point was visited by Doctor Britton and Millspaugh in March, 1907, and the Sea Grape tree recorded as the most conspicuous plant nearest to the ocean. It grows on all coasts of the West Indies, and, widely, on those of tropical continental America, ranging north to Florida and to Bermuda, but has not established itself anywhere in the Old World, although its seeds long retain vitality in salt water. Indeed the whole genus Coccolobis, containing over 125 species of trees and shrubs, is restricted in natural distribution to tropical and subtropical America. Both Spanish and English names, and the Latin one as well, refer to the grape-like clusters of fruits. The generic name, given by Patrick Browne in 1756, is of Greek derivation, with reference to the fruit, in which the calyx remains more or less adherent to the seed-like schene. The leaves are broad, alternate, stalked, and without teeth, their stipules united into sheaths (ochreae). The small, usually green or white flowers are borne in slender, elongated, mostly drooping clusters; the calyx is 5-lobed, enlarges and encloses the schene in fruiting; there are 8 stamens with slender filaments; the pistil has a 5-angled ovary containing only 1 ovule, and 3 styles. The fruit is globular or ovoid, small in most species, more or less fleshy or cartilaginous. Coccolobis uvifera (grape-bearing) is a tree reaching a maximum height of about 15 meters with a trunk up to about a meter in diameter, but these sizes are exceptional; its branches spread widely, the bark is smooth and brown, the stout young twigs finely hairy; the hard and heavy wood is dark brown, used for furniture and in cabinet work. The short-stalked leaves are orbicular, or wider than long, firm in texture, from 7 to 30 centimeters long, heart-shaped at the base. The white flowers are borne in slender clusters from 7 to 30 centimeters long, their stalks 3 to 4 millimeters long; the calyx is about 6 millimeters broad, with rounded lobes. The drooping clusters of globose, purple fruits, somewhat resemble bunches of grapes; the individual fruits are from 1 to 2 centimeters in diameter, their thin pulp astringent.

• Discussion

  Uva de Mar Sea Grape Buckwheat Family Polygonum uvifera Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 365. 1753. Coccolobis uvifera Jacquin, Enumeratio Systematica Plantarum 19.1760.