Calophyllum antillanum Britton

• Title

  Calophyllum antillanum Britton

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Calophyllum antillanum Britton

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Calophyllum antillanum Palo de Maria Galba Family Clusiaceae Clusia Family Calophyllum antillanum Britton; Britton & Wilson, Scientific Survey Porto Rico & Virgin Islands 5: 584. 1924. Calophyllum Jacquinii Fawcett & Rendle, Flora of Jamaica 5: 200. 1926, Calophyllum brasiliense antillanum Standley, Tropical Woods, 30: 7. 1932. A valuable evergreen tree, naturally distributed nearly throughout the West Indies, except the Bahama Islands, and naturalized in Bermuda. In Porto Rico it grows in wet, or moist districts, at lower and middle elevations, mostly inhabiting woodlands and river-banks, occurring also on Vieques Island. The tree is much planted for ornament and for shade; its durable wood is used in construction, and for posts. The Spanish names Maria and Santa Maria are also applied to it. Until a few years ago the botanical name Calophyllum Calaba Linnaeus, was used for this tree but literary investigation demonstrated that this belongs to a related species of the Old World tropics. The genus Calophyllum of Linnaeus, (Greek, beautiful leaves) consists of some 25 species of resinous trees, most of them natives of the Old World tropics, a few in tropical America. Their leaves are broad, opposite, short-stalked, finely pinnately veined, leathery, and without teeth. The small flowers are loosely clustered, and mostly imperfect; there are 2, 3 or 4 sepals, and from 1 to 4 petals, or petals are wanting; the staminate flowers have many, short, separate stamens; the pistillate flowers have a 1-celled ovary, containing 1 ovule, the style topped by a peltate stigma, and there are usually many imperfect stamens. The fruit is a small drupe. Calophyllum antillanum (of the Antilles) may become at least 30 m. high, but is usually much lower; the old bark is deeply-fissured. The leaves are elliptic, bright green and shining, from 7 to 15 centimeters long, rounded, or slightly notched, with very many slender lateral veins and a rather prominent midrib. The clusters of flowers are lateral, or axillary, and much shorter than the leaves, the small individual fragrant flowers on stalks from 4 to 10 millimeters long; the orbicular sepals are about 3 millimeters long, the white petals about twice as long or none; the staminate flowers have about 50 perfect stamens; in the pistillate flowers the ovary is nearly globular, the style short, and the imperfect stamens (staminodes) numerous. The nearly globular fruit is about 2.5 centimeters in diameter, brown when mature.