Conocarpus erectus L.

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Combretaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Conocarpus erectus L.

  • Description

    Species Description - Small tree or shrub to 8 m tall; bark light brown, rough, with irregular plates. Leaf blades 2.5-9 x 1.5-3 cm, coriaceous, narrowly elliptic, elliptic, or oblanceolate, glabrous, or with a few (to many) appressed hairs, the blades with numerous dark punctations and foveolate at vein axils, the apex acute or acuminate or rarely obtuse, the base tapering into a more or less defined petiole, the margins entire; petioles 4-10 mm long, with 2 marginal glands. Flowers in small (5-10 mm diam.), dense heads. Hypanthium short, densely sericeous; calyx with 5 ovate lobes, ca. 1.5 mm long; stamens 10, the filaments 2 mm long; disk densely sericeous. Drupes dry, 2-winged, slightly concave, grouped into globose, conelike head, to 1 cm long. Seeds nearly lenticular, ca. 1.5 mm long.

  • Discussion

    Common names: button mangrove, button wood.

  • Distribution

    Common along the coast, sometimes in swampy areas but also in dry soils or even on rocky shores. Fortsberg (A4082). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda; throughout tropical America and the western coast of Africa.

    Africa| Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Virgin Gorda Virgin Islands South America| Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|