CX3MPOSITE FAMILY (COMPOSITAE) 



250. Carruzo 



Shrub or small tree with bristly hairy twigs 

 easily recognized by the opposite long-stalked 

 leaves with thin broadly ovate blades long-pointed 

 at both ends, the edges irregularly and doubly 

 toothed with long and short teeth, green and i-ough 

 hairy above, and gray green and soft hairy be- 

 neath. Other characters are: (1) bristly hairy 

 stout green to brown twigs; and (2) large terminal 

 clusters with numerous greenish and white 

 rounded flower heads about i/4 inch long and 

 broad, each with many crowded tubular white 

 flowers. 



A widely spreading and much branched ever- 

 green shrub or small tree 10-20 feet or more in 

 height and to 3 inches or more in trunk diameter. 

 The bark is gray and smoothish to slightly fissured. 

 Inner bark is yellowish and slightly bitter. The 

 twigs are ringed at the nodes by 2 S-lobed light- 

 brown leaf scars. 



Petioles are 1-4 inches long, finely hairy, light 

 green or purplish tinged, stout, at base broad and 

 slightly 3-lobed. Blades are 3-8 inches long and 

 2-6 inches wide. 



The much branched clusters (corymbs) of nu- 

 merous flower heads are -1-6 inches broad and have 

 a slightly liitter odor. On the outside of each 

 flower head are a few overlapping, hairy mar- 

 gined, greenish scales about %6 i'lch long with 

 whitish points, enclosing many narrow flowers 

 ^10-1/4 inch long and smaller light green scales. 

 The marginal flowers are fertile and female, con- 

 sisting of elliptic, flattened, green inferior ovary 

 bearing tubular white corolla minutely 5-toothed 

 at apex and the protruding 2-forked white style. 

 The o*her flowers are sterile and male, consisting 

 of rudimentary pistil of narrow inferior ovary 

 bearing unbranched style and the tubular white 

 corolla, which is 5-toothed at apex and which has 

 inside the tube 5 stamens united by the nari-ow 

 dark brown anthers. 



Several black seedlike fruits (akenes) about Vs 

 inch long, elliptic and flattened, are produced 

 within the flower head, which also turns blackish. 



Clibadium erosum (Sw.) DC. 



Probably flowering and fruiting nearly through 

 the year. 



The whitish wood is soft, and there is a large 

 white pith. 



In openings, cutover areas, and roadsides in for- 

 ests of the lower and upper mountain regions of 

 Puerto Rico including dwarf forest of the peaks. 

 It is a light-requiring species mainly of disturbed 

 areas. Also recorded from St. Thomas more than 

 a century ago but not found there since. 



Prr.Lic KORESTS. — Carite, Luquillo, Toro Negro. 



Range. — Puerto Rico and in the Lesser Antilles 

 on Saba, St. Kitts, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Do- 

 minica, Martinique, and St. Vincent. 



Otiiek cosimox names. — cachimbo, tuchima 

 (Puerto Rico); bois enivrant (Guadeloupe). 



The composite family (Compositae), to which 

 this small tree belongs, is easily recognized by the 

 flowers crowded together in heads. What appears 

 to be a single flower is found upon inspection to 

 contain many small flowei-s, some frequently with 

 strap-shaped corolla resembling a single petal and 

 others in the center or disk with tubular corolla of 

 a different color. The seedlike fruits (akenes) 

 usually bear long hairs or .scales at apex. The 

 family is a very large one containing numerous 

 species of herbs and some shrubs and in the tropics 

 a few species of small trees. 



Guerrero {Eiipaforiiim poi'toricense Urban: 

 synonym Critonia portoricensis (Urban) Britton 

 & Wilson) is the only other species of this family 

 i-eaching tree size in Puerto Rico. This is a small 

 tree or shrub 10-20 feet high, known only from 

 northern, central, and western Puerto Rico and 

 from Vieques but sometimes planted for its fra- 

 grant foliage. It lias opposite elliptic leaves with 

 petioles less than % inch long and blades 3-6 

 inches long and 1-2 inches wide, thin, toothed on 

 edges, hairless, with many gland dots and lines, 

 and fragrant. The large terminal flower clusters 

 contain many stalkless heads, each with about 5 

 tubular white flowers. The seedlike fruits have 

 long hairs at apex. 



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