Common Trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

VERBENA FAMILY (VERBENACEAE)
227. P6ndula, pasture fiddlewood, Florida fiddlewood Citharexylum f ruticosum L.
This small tree is easily recognized by: (1) opposite,
mostly elliptic, yellolv-pen leaves with
conspicuous pink or ornnge petioles; (2) narrow
clusters of small fmgrtllit white flowers nearly sr/s
inch across the 5 slightly unequal spreading corolla
lobes, borne almost stalkless on narrow drooping
axes; (3) nearly round, shiny, reddish-brown
or black fruits 3Js Inch or less in diameter; and
(4) rough, light brown bark, becoming much fissured
and shredding in long narrow strips.
Evergreen shrub or small slender tree 1040 feet
in height and to 1 foot in trunk diameter. The inner
bark is whitish and tasteless. Young twigs are
4-angled and with faint rings at nodes, slender,
light brown or green, becoming gray and finely fissured.
Petioles are 3/2-1 inch long. Leaf blades are 3-7
inches long and 1-21h inches broad, short- or longpointed
at both ends or sometimes rounded or
notched at apex, the edges rarely tootlied on young
shoots, thick and leathery, sometimes hairy on
veins beneath, shiny yellow green on u per surface
and dull beneath, turning red be ? ore falling.
They vary greatly in shape from lance-shaped to
elliptic or obovate nnd when dr show a rnised
network of small veins on both si es. The midrib
often is pinkish toward base.
i
Flolver clusters (racemes) are 2-12 inches long,
lateral and terminal, unbrnnched, bearin many
white flowers about % inch long. The pa e green
calyx is narrowly tubular, s/lo inch long, mostly
5-toothed, hairless or hair ; the white tubular 5-
lobed corolla nearly % inc f 1 lon p hair at throat ;
4 stamens inserted on corolla tu e; an pistil with
4-celled green ovary, slender style, and slightly 2-
lobed stigma.
The drooping clusters of the fleshy fruits
(drupes), sometimes abundant, nre reported to bo
sweet and edible. Encli hns n stone wliich sepn-
rntes into 2 2-seeded nutlets. Flowering and fluit-
in through the year.
%he sapwood is li ht brown and thin, and the
heartwood is reddis 8 . The wood is very hard,
f
heavy (specific gravity 0.7), and strong. Considered
a good fencepost in Fuerto Rico. The wood
of this and related species has been used elsewhere
for furniture, construction, and violins, guitars,
and other musical instruments.
Sometimes planted along highways and fences
and in ardens as an ornamental. Also a honey
plant. !?his species is s u b to attacks b enterpillars
which fasten the leaves together in i: undles
and cause leaf fall, reducing the value for ornament.
In thickets and forests of the coastal limestone,
and lower mountain re ions of Puerto kico. Also
in Desecheo, Icams, dlebrn, Vieques, St. Croix,
St. Thomas, St. John, Tortola and Vir in Gorda.
Pun~rc km~rn.-Aguirre, bnmbalnc % e, Carib,
Guajataca, Gulnicn, Luquillo, Jfaricao, Rio
Abnjo, Sus6a.
B~UNICIPALITZEB WHERE EBPEOIALLY OOBfX0N.-
21,31, 32,36 42, 66, 69.
RAN~E.-dentral and southern Florida includin
Florida Ke s and throu h West Indies from
Bn 5 nmns and 2' uba to St. dncent, Grenada, and
Trinidad. Also Venezuela to Sur~nam in northern
South America. Widely planted for ornament.
OTHE~ COILYON NAXEB.-~LL~O de yitarra,
bilstln~o (Puerto Rico) ; susanalecl~e (Virgin
Islands) ; cafe cimarrdn, penda, piindula (Dominican
Republic) ; penda, canilla de venndo guayo
blnnco (Cuba) ; Florida fiddlewood, fiddlewood
(Uaited States) ; spicate fiddlewood, long-tom
(Uahnmns) ; fiddlewood (Jamaica, St. Vincent,
Trinidad).
Minor botanical varieties differin chiefly in
Ii~tiri~~ess nnd leaf slinpe have been 8stingulshed
outside Puerto Rico.
A related tree species of piindula ( Citharexylzum
eyinosum L.), known also as susana, is wild and
planted in St. Croix and St. Thomas and ranges
sontllrvard to northern South Americn. It has
inches long, thin, hairless, and
network of small veins when dry,
black fruits % inch long.