Common Trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

GINSENG FAMILY (ARALIACEAE)
Key to the 2 species ill ustrated (Nos. !20&201)
A. Leaves simple--200. Dendropanao arboreus.
88. Leaves digitate or palmately compound, with usually
A small to medium-sized tree characterized by :
(1) mostly long-stalked (to 4 inches) elliptic to
ovate leaves, dark green and slightly shiny above
and light green beneath; (2) terminal com ound
flower clusters of numerous small, usua I' ly 5-
parted, greenish-yellow flowers s/16 inch across on
shorter stalks in b:ill-like clusters 1/2-3/q inch
across, which are borne on long equal stalks along
the main axis; and (3) fleshy rounded fruit
(berry) about inch in diameter, turning from
whitis11 green to black at maturity.
An evergreen tree to 40 feet or more in height
and 1 foot in trunk diameter, with wide spreading
rounded crown, hairless througliout. The bark is
light gray, smooth or warty with raised dots
(lenticels) or becoming slightly fissured. Inner
bark is whitish and tasteless. Twigs are green,
turning to pay, slender or stout.
Leaves are alternate, the green petioles mostly
long but varying from very short to very long,
x4 inches. Blades are 2-8 inches long and 1%-
3% inches wide, short- to long-pointed at apex and
short-pointed to rounded at base, thin to slightly
thickened, not toothed on edges, the lateral veins
often slightly sunken on upper surface. On young
shoots the leaves are reported to be often 3-lobed.
Flo~\-er clusters (raceme of umbels with compound
umbel at apex) are 2-5 inches long and 2
inches across, t.he branches about s/4 inch long and
flomer stalks about $4 inch long, the axis and
branches yellow green. Flower parts usually 5,
sometimes 6 or 7, of each kind. A flower consists
of a basal tube (hypanthium) about 1/16 inch long
and broad, partly enclosing the inferior 5-celled
ovary and bearing the minute 5-toothed calyx, 5-
pointed yellow petals more than 1/16 inch long, 5
erect stamens 1/16 inch long, and top of ovary with
5 pnrtly united styles.
The fruits upon drying become 5-angled and
contain 5 flattened seeds nearly inch long, nrranged
starlike. The styles remain at apex of
Dendropanax arboreus (L,) Decne. & Planch.
frnit. Flowering and fruiting nearly through the
year.
The sapwood is whitish or yellowish brown.
The
'
moderately soft, moderately lightweight wood
s ecific gravity 0.5) is little used.
E lsewhere a decoction of the leaves and roots
has been employed in home medicines. A honey
plant.
IVidely distributed in the lower mountain and
~iioist limestone regions of Puerto Rico, especially
in tlie coffee plantations of the central and western
Cordillera. Also in St. Thomas and Tortola.
I'URLIC FORESTS.-Cambalache, Guajataca, Luquillo,
Blaricao, Rio Abajo, Susiirt, Toro Negro.
B~UXICIPALITIELS WHERE ESPECIALLY OOMMON.-6,
35.
RANGE.-Common and widespread in tropical
hmorica. Greater Antilles, St. Thomas, Tortola,
St. Vincent, Grenada, and Trinidad. Mexico
(Sinaloa to Tamaulipas and southward) to Colombia,
Venezuela (including Margarita) , Peru,
and Bolivia. Also planted m southern Florida.
OTEEEI~ COXMON NB~IES.--P&~O de pol10 (Puet't.0
Rico) ; ramdn de costa, ram6n de vaca, lengun de
vaca, palo de burro (Dominican Republic) ;
vibona, ramljn de vaca, ramdn de caballo, palo
santo (Cuba) ; mano de oso, mano de lebn, palo
santo, palo de danta, palo guitar0 (Blexico) ;
Innno de le6n (El Salvador) ; vaquero (Panama) ;
pamn (Venezuela) ; galipee angelica-tree (Jamaica)
; bois nkgresse (~aitij .
BOTASICAL s~~o~~x.-Gitihertia arborea (L.)
E. March.
Gongoli (Dendropanax laurifolius (E. March.)
Decne. b Planch.), also called palo de pollo negro,
palo cle cacllumbn, palo de vaca, vibona, and
vibora, is a related tree species known only from
moist forests of Pnerto Rico. It has the flower
clusters spreading and branched (umbels in
umbel-like clusters), tlie stalks of the branches up
to ll/z inches long.