STANDLEY TREES AND SHRUBS OF MEXICO. 1029 



ft 



Flowers in dense globose conelike lieads 1. CONOCARPUS. 



Flowers spicate or racemose. 

 Leaves alternate ; petals none. 



Calyx limb deciduous ; branches unarmed 2. TERMINALIA. 



Calyx limb persistent; branches usually armed with spines — 3. BTJCIDA. 

 Leaves opposite; petals present. 



Calyx limb persistent ; fruit not winged ; plants erect. 



4. LAGUNCULARIA. 

 Calyx limb deciduous ; fruit broadly winged ; plants scandent. 



5. COMBRETUM. 



1. CONOCARPUS L. Sp. PI. 176. 1753. 



A single species is known. 



1. Conocarpus erecta L. Sp. PI. 176. 1753. 



On both coasts of Mexico, from Tamaulipas and southern Baja California 

 southward. Widely distributed on tropical American shores and in western 

 Africa. 



Variable in size, sometimes a prostrate shrub but usually erect, becoming a 

 tree 20 meters high, with a trunk 80 cm. in diameter; bark dark brown, fis- 

 sured into irregular ridges and thin scales ; leaves alternate, short-petiolate, 

 obovate to elliptic or oval, 2 to 10 cm. long, obtuse or acute at each end, en- 

 tire, leathery, glabrous or sericeous, the petiole bearing 2 glands ; flowers per- 

 fect, very small, green, in globose paniculate heads 1 cm. or less in diameter ; 

 calyx 2 mm. long; corolla none; stamens usually 5, exserted ; fruit a conelike 

 head of small flat winged scalelike drupes, purplish green ; wood hard, close- 

 grained, grayish or yellowish brown, its specific gravity nearly 1.00. " Mangle 

 negro" (Oaxaca) ; "xtabch6" or " xkanche " (Yucatan, Maya); " estacha- 

 huite" (from the Nahuatl iztac-ciidlmitl, "white-tree," referring to the whit- 

 ish branches, Rcko) ; " botoncahui " (Sinaloa) ; " botoncillo " (Yucatan. Ven- 

 ezuela) ; "mangle" (Gueri-ero, Santo Domingo) ; "mangle prieto " (Tabasco) ; 

 " saragoza " (Colombia, Panama); "mangle botoncillo" (Venezuela, Porto 

 llico) ; " mangle boton " (Porto Rico, Cuba) ; " mangle Colorado " (Porto Rico) ; 

 "mangle pinuelo " (Panama); " yana " (Cuba); " mariquito " (Costa Rica); 

 "mangle torcido " (Panama). 



The buttonwood grows in mangrove swamps with the mangroves and 

 Avicenuia nitida. The wood -'s used for rafters, boats, cabinet work, and 

 various other purposes ; it is said to be durable in the soil. The leaves and 

 bark are employed for tanning skins. The bitter bark finds use locally in 

 medicine as an astringent and tonic. 



Conocarpus erecta sericea DC.^ is a form with densely sericeous leaves. It 

 occurs on both coasts of Mexico with the typical glabrate form. By some 

 authors it has been considered a distinct species, but it grades gradually into 

 the common form. 



2. TERMINALIA L. Mant. PI. 1: 21. 1771. 



Trees ; leaves alternate, crowded at the ends of the branches, deciduous, 

 petiolate ; flowers perfect or polygamous, small, green, in lax elongate spikes ; 

 calyx tube constricted above the ovary, the limb campanulate, .5-dentate ; 

 petals none ; stamens 10 ; fruit ovoid, compressed or winged, 1-seeded, dru- 

 paceous. 



Ovary compressed, not winged: calyx limb 2.5 mm. long 1. T. catappa. 



Ovary with 2 broad wings ; calyx limb 1.5 mm. long or less 2. T. excelsa. 



'Prodr. 3: 16. 1828. 



