Common Trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

FLACoURTIA FAMILY (FLACOURTIACEAE)
Key to the 6 species illustrated (Noa. 18%173)
A. Flowers in short lateral clusters; fruit a rounded or an elliptic seed capsule.
B. Leaves many, evenly spaced on long slender tmim appearing pinnate; seed capsules so inch or leas in
diameter.
12. Leaves with lower surface gray green, hairy ; edge8 toothed-169. Uaeearia arbwea.
CC. Leavea green on both surfaces; edges appearing as if without teeth-172. Uaeearea eylveetrie.
BB. Leaves few; seed capsules about gs inch in diameter.
D. Leaves less than 3 inches long, hairless; seed capsules round-170. Casearea deoandra.
DD. Leaves 2%-65 inchea long, hairy on veins; seed capsules elliptfol71. Oaaearia guicmsnsfs.
M. Flowers in long-stalked lateral clusters; fruit of seed capsules resembling dried flowers with 8 or 7 large brown
sepals attached-173. Hotnallum racetnosum.
169. Rabo ratdn Casearia arborea (L. C. Rich.) Urban
This very common small tree is distinguished
b : (1) many cr~wded~lance-shaped or narrowly
o i long leaves flattened m 2 rows on long, slender,
nearly horizontal or slightly drooping twigs;
(2) the leaves long-pointed, finely saw-toothed,
and the lower surface prty green and covered with
minute hairs; and (3) small pnish-white bellshaped
flowers 3/ra inch long and broad and seed
capsules 9i6 inch in diameter in clusters at leaf
bases.
An evergreen tree to 30 feet high and 6 (rarely
10) inches in trunk diameter or shrubby. The
thin gray-brown bark is smoothish. Inner bark is
light brown and slightly bitter. The twigs are
finely hairy and brown, green when young.
The alternate leaves have short hairy petioles
v8 inch long and thin blades 1%-4 inches long and
1/2-1 inch broad, short-pointed at base, shiny peen
and almost hairless on u per surface and densely
ay-green hairy beneat \ . Many minute gland
gts and lines can be seen when a leaf is examined
with a hand lens against the light.
Several to many small flowers are borne in lateral
clusters (umbels) about % inch across at bases
of leaves, each on a short, hairy, jointed stalk less
than 1/8 inch long. The whitish or greenish-white,
bell-shaped flowers consist of the calyx with 5
finely hairy, sprending lobes about 4/8 inch long;
10 stamens attached to calyx and alternating with
smaller hairy sterile stamens (staminodes) ; and
pistil with 1-celled ovary with style and rounded
stigma. Seed cnpsul~ become reddish and blackish.
Flowering and fruiting through the year.
Sapwood is hard and brittle, very light brown.
The tree is used chiefly for posts and fuel in Puerto
Rico.
Abundant and widely distributed along roadsides
and in openinp, thickets, and forests, in the
lower mountain, molst limestone, and moist coastal
regions of Puerto Rico. (Also reported long ago
fmm St. Thomas, perhaps in error.)
PUBLIC FORE~TS.-Carib, Guajataca, Guilarte,
Luquillo, Maricao, Rio Abajo, Susiia, Toro Negro.
~~UNICIPALITIES WHERE EsPECIALLY COMMON.^,
19,20, 27,20,35,40.49,51,52, 53,64.
R~~a~.-cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.
Recorded from Honduras, British Honduras, and
Costa Rica in Central America. Also in South
America from Guianas to Brnzil, Bolivia, and
Peru.
OTHER COMMON ~~r+r~s.-rabo junco (Puerto
Rico) ; palo de yagua, palo salvaje, cascarita (Dominican
Republic) ; guaguasf, jique, guasimilln
(Cuba) ; llajas (Peru).
Two additional species of this genus are native
in Puerto Rico besides the 4 illustrated here.
Casearia acukata Jicq., a shrub or sniall tree of
southern and western Puerto Rico, has elliptic
leaves 1-2% inches long, usually hairy beneath and
distinguished by spines S/4-lj/4 inches long, often
brnnched, on the twigs.
TalantrGn (Casearia bicotor Urban), apparently
rare, is a tree species known only from the
Cordillera near Utuado. It has narrow oblong
leaves 3-4s inches long and 1-1% inches wide,
short-pointed at apex and rounded at base.