Simarouba tulae Urb.

• Title

  Simarouba tulae Urb.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Simarouba tulae Urb.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Simarouba Tulae Aceitillo bobo Quassia family Family Simaroubaceae Simarouba Tulae Urban, Jahrbuch des Botanischen Gartens zu Berlin 4; 245. 1886 As with many other interesting trees of Porto Rico mountain forests, the progressive diminution of forest area, by cutting and clearing, has made this endemic species rare, and its valuable, hard, strong, and durable, wood scarce, and difficult to obtain. Originally it must have been locally abundant in the forests of wet or moist parts of the island, at higher altitudes. Fortunately, for purposes of convenient reference, trees have been preserved in the arboretum of the Porto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station at Mayaguez, where Mr. McClelland guided us to them in January, 1929, at which time they were in flower and fruit. No English popular name has been associated with this tree. It is the only species of its genus inhabiting Porto Rico. Simarouba (Guiana name) is a genus established by the French botanist Aublet in 1775; the type is Simarouba amara, of northern South America, similar to our tree, but specifically distinct; about 5 species are known, all natives of tropical and subtropical America, one of them ranging north into Florida. They have bitter bark, containing oil, once-compound leaves, and small, clustered, imperfect flowers, the staminate and pistillate ones borne on the same or on different trees. There are from 4 to 6, partly united sepals, and the same number of much longer, separate petals; the staminate flowers have from 8 to 12 stamens, the awl-shaped filaments basally appendaged; the pistillate flowers have a usually 5-celled ovary of 5, separate carpels, each containing 1 or 2 ovules and often accompanied by barren staminodes. The fleshy fruits are 1-seeded. Simarouba Tulae (in honor of Tula Krug) is recorded as reaching a height of about 18 meters with a trunk up to 0.5 meter in diameter, with furrowed bark, but is usually smaller, and sometimes shrub-like. The leaves are smooth, from 15 to 35 centimeters long; the 6 to 10, oblong or elliptic, pointed leaflets are bright green and somewhat shining on the upper surface, yellowish green and dull beneath. The flowers form broad clusters from 7 to 20 centimeters long; the sepals are ovate and somewhat pointed, the elliptic petals about 10 millimeters long. The broad, flattened fruits are from 2 to 3.5 centimeters long, and from 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters wide.