Coccoloba rugosa Desf.

• Title

  Coccoloba rugosa Desf.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Coccoloba rugosa Desf.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Coccolobis rugosa Ortegon Ortegon Family Polygonaceae Buckwheat Family Coccolobis rugosa Desfontaines, Catalogus Plantarum Horti Regii Pariscensis, edition 5, 389. 1829. An endemic forest tree, conspicuous by tufts of large, nearly orbicular leaves borne at the end of the slender trunk, or the few branches with the long, slender clusters of bright red, or crimson flowers. It is occasional, or rare in the wet or moist parts of Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations. The tree was recorded, many years ago, as growing on St. Thomas, but is not known to exist there now; it may have been there before the forests were eliminated. For an account of the genus Coccolobis we refer to our description of Coccolobis Uvifera. Coccolobis rugosa (referring to the leaves) may become about 15 meters high, but its trunk is only from 6 to 10 centimeters in diameter, and is often unbranched; the young growth is flattened, 2-edged, ridged, stout, and smooth; the bark is light gray, and fissured, the wood white, and very hard. The stalk-less leathery, heart-shaped, smooth, orbicular to obovate leaves are strongly-veined and wrinkled, brittle, from 3 to 6 decimeters broad, with sheaths from 5 to 7 centimeters long. The showy clusters of many flowers are about as long as the width of the leaves, or longer, the individual flowers borne several-together on stalks from 5 to 13 millimeters long; the calyx is about 3 millimeters long, its lobes ovate. The ovoid, or nearly globular, orange-red fruits are about 6 millimeters long. There are 12 or 13 species of Coccolobis in Porto Rico; we illustrate and describe 3 of them in this work.