390 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
Trunk short, bark deeply furrowed, pale; branchlets thick, marked with scars of 
fallen leaves; twigs densely silky-pubescent; leaves closely placed at the end of 
branches, 10 to 20 cm. long, oval or obovate-oval, much-tapering to base, rounded 
or obtuse at apex, fleshy, densely covered with close silky, white, appressed hair; 
petiole stout, short and obscure; flowers numerous, sessile, cymes peduncled, spread- 
ing, with long branches, silky; buds globose; sepals ovate-rotund, imbricate, densely 
silky-hairy; corolla rotate, over 6 mm. in diameter, lobes rotundate, spreading; 
anthers sessile, large, at throat of corolla; ovary glabrous; stigma subsessile, obscurely 
2-lobed; fruit the size of a small pea, depressed-globose, minutely apiculate, smooth, 
brown; nutlets corky. 
The tree is of little economic value. Shoe lasts are sometimes made of the wood. 
It is widely distributed in the Malay archipelago, the Indian and Pacifie oceans. 
The Polynesian names, signifying ‘‘scorched leaf,’ are applied to it on account of 
the shriveled appearance of the dead leaves. 
REFERENCES: 
Tournefortia argentea 1. f. Suppl. 188. 1781. 
Tree-cotton. See CGossypiion arboreum. 
Tree ferns. 
The only tree fern thus far known in Guam is Alsophila haenkei Presl, a species 
growing on the banks of streams, first collected by Haenke in 1792, and afterwards 
by Gaudichand, who called it Cyathea mariana.“ 
Tree mignonette. See Lawsonia alba. 
Trefoil, tick. (Ceneral name for the species of Meihomia. 
Tribulus cistoides. JALTROPS, 
‘amily Zygophyllaceae 
A trailing strand plant with yellow flowers resembling those of Cistus. Branches 
procumbent or ascending; leaves silky, stipulate, abruptly pinnate; leaflets about 8 
pairs, oblong, subequal; stipules faleate, acuminate; flowers solitary; sepals 5, 
caducous, acuminate, silky; petals 5, obovate; disk annular, 10-lobed; stamens 10, 
inserted on the base of the disk, 5 longer opposite the petals, 5 shorter with a little 
gland outside; filaments filiform, naked; ovary sessile, hirsute; style short, stigmas 
5; cocei almost woody, tubercled and hairy, usually 2-horned, partitioned internally 
into several 1-seeded compartments. 
A widely spread strand plant, easily identified by its conspicuous yellow flowers 
and horned woody cocci. Not common in Guam, where, according to the natives, it 
is of recent introduction, A few plants observed on the sandy beach on the east 
shore of the island between Pago and Taldfofo. 
REFERENCES: 
Tribulus cistoides L. Sp. Pl. 1: 387.173. 
Trichoon roxburghii. Reep. MArsit REED. 
Family Poaceae. 
LocAL NAMES.—Karriso (Guam): Cafia, Carrizo (Spanish); Tambo, Tabunak 
(Philippines); Yoshigo, Yoshi-dsuno (Japan); Nal, Nar, Karka (India); 
Nalagas (Ceylon); Lu, Tih, Wei (China). 
A tall perennial grass with stems 2 to 4 meters high, common in marshes and 
along the banks of streams. The inflorescence forms large spreading lax panicles, 
with the flowers enveloped with long silky hairs. The plant is gregarious, having 
creeping, stoloniferous rootstocks: stems stout, hollow, smooth, covered with the 
leaf sheaths; leaves close together, growing in 2 vertical ranks, sword-shaped, with- 
out ligule, but with a ridge of short hairs instead; panicle decompound, erect, more 
“Presi, Reliquiae Haenkeanae, vol. 1, p.68, 1825. Gaudichaud, Freyeinet’s Voyage, 
Botany, p. 365, 1826. 
