atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

CLUSIACEAE OR GUTTIF'ERAE (Mangosteen Family)
Calophyllum inophyllum L. "Portia tree", "Alexandrian laurel", "beach mahogany",
" tomano" (Hawaii) iyo, ijo (N); te itai (K); fetau, itai (T); fetau (T)
Indigenous. Trop. Africa to E. Polynesia and Micronesia. Very abundant.
Medium to large, hard-wooded, often crooked, slow-growing tree, 10 to 20 m tall, with a
broad, low-branching, spreading crown, rough gray bark, and sticky yellowish sap;
leaves, 10 to 20 cm long and 6 to 10 cm wide, simple, opposite, dark green, glossy,
glabrous above, densely covered with minute silvery-white scales beneath, stiff, leathery,
elliptic-oblong, rounded or emarginate, base acute, pinnately nerved, with a stout pale
yellow-green midrib, lateral nerves very fine, numerous, parallel; petioles, 1 to 2.5 cm
long, stout, caniculate; flowers, about 2 cm in diameter, showy, waxy white, very
fragrant when fresh, 4- to -5 petaled (rarely 6 to 8), with numerous yellow stamens,
borne on pedicels, up to 3 cm long, in solitary axillary, 4 to 15-flowered racemose
clusters, up to 10 cm long; sepals, 4, concave-orbicular, the outer pair smaller, about 8
mm long, the inner pair, 10 inm long; fruit, about 2.5 to 5 cm long, green to purple-
black, globose, hard, heavy, thin-fleshed, with a bony shell which encloses a somewhat
poisonous single kernel or seed surrounded with cork, hanging from a long stalk.
Dominant large tree in original pre-mining plateau (Topside) forest vegetation, common
on escarpment slopes and on coastal strip. Timber provided the best wood for house posts
(iyor, yor), furniture, woodcarving and for canoe hulls in the past; sticky sap (erebeniyo)
used for caulking canoes; kernel of green and mature fruit (i kuan iyo ) crushed to yield
oil which is applied to hair to make it long and black; old decayed fruit skewered on
coconut midribs (engow) in past and burned as traditional Nauruan light; and mature fruit
burned as a mosquito repellent. Trees now being indiscriminately felled and burned as
refuse at a Topside dump to prepare land for phosphate mining. A tree highly valued for
its timber and other purposes throughout the Pacific, the seed kernel (known commercial-
ly as "punnai nut") yielding a dark green oil formerly exported from Fiji. 2, 3(58740),
4(164N), 5(120), 6, 7.
COMBRETACEAE (Terminalia Family)
Quisqualis indica L. Rangoon creeper"
Recent introduction. Trop. Asia. Occasional. An erect, vigorous shrub, growing
a large woody , vine from 2 to 7 In long L _ with slender stems and rusty-brown young
into - _
growth; leaves 7 to 15 cm long, light green, soft, opposite, oval or oblong, acute, base
rounded; flowers, borne in short showy drooping clusters in the leaf axils, changing color
from pink to white as they open, and then darkening to red, pleasantly fragrant, calyx
tube, 0.5 to 7.5 cm long, tipped with 5 short points, 5 oblong petals and 10 short