Stahlia monosperma (Tul.) Urb.
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
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Family
Caesalpiniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - We have found no English name for this endemic, monotypic tree of Porto Rico, now notably restricted in distribution to a few colonies along or near the eastern and southwestern coasts, nearly within saline influence, and it is this natural habitat that caused the Spanish botanist Bello to use for it the specific botanical name maritima (maritime). We have studied it as small groves at Ensenada Honda and Bahia Puerco, and a much larger colony on a subsaline plain adjacent to mangrove swamps near Boqueron; we have also seen a solitary tree, detected by Forester William P. Kramer, in an arroyo south of Coamo Springs, considerably north of and above the influence of salt water, indicating that the tree can thrive without salt. A colony is known also on the island Vieques. The generic name Stahlia, given by Bello in 1881, commemorates Doctor Agustin Stahl, a German physician, who resided at Bayamon from 1865 until his death there in 1917; he was an assiduous student of Botany, Zoology and Archaeology, making important contributions to knowledge through his writings and collections; his principal botanical publication is a book, issued in 6 parts, 1883 to 1888, entitled "Estudios sobre la Flora de Puerto Rico", now very rare; it is related that most of the edition was destroyed by fire. The specific name monosperma (one-seeded) refers to the single seed in each pod; it is used, because it has 37 years priority of publication over maritima of Bello. It reaches a maximum height of about eighteen meters, and trunks nearly a meter in diameter have been recorded, but no trees of these dimensions are known to us at the present time; the black, heavy and durable wood is highly prized, but now rare; the slender twigs are smooth; from the base of cut stumps many shoots are produced, which may grow into new, clustered trunks. The compound leaves are smooth, and have from three to six pairs of rather thin, pointed leaflets from five to ten centimeters long, and characteristically provided with scattered, small, round, black glands on the under side, which distinguish this tree from all others of the West Indian flora. The flowers are borne on short stalks in long clusters at the ends of branches; the calyx is about six millimeters long, composed of 5, nearly separate, blunt sepals; the 5, nearly equal petals are elliptic, reflexed, cream-colored tinged with pink, and from 8 to 12 millimeters long; there are from 7 to 10 separate stamens about as long as the petals, bearing pink hairs on their filaments and dark red anthers; the ovary and the style are smooth. The pods are flat, nearly round or a little longer than broad, from 3 to 5 centimeters long, leathery in texture, purplish when ripe, and contain only one seed; they apparently fall to the ground without opening. Our illustration was first published in "Addisonia" , plate 408, in 1927.
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Discussion
Cobana negra Senna Family Caesalpinia monosperma Tulasne, Archives du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris 4: 148. 1844. Stahlia maritima Bello, Apuntes para la Flora de Puerto Rico 25.1881. Stahlia monosperma Urban, Symbolae Antillanae 2: 285. 1900.