Red Ironwood 



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11. RED IRONWOOD 



GENUS REYNOSIA GRISEBACH 



Reynosia septentrionalis Urban 



HE generic name Reynosia is in honor of x\lvaro Rcynoso, a Cuban 

 chemist and agriculturalist, who died in 1888, About 9 species are 

 known, evergreen trees and shrubs of the West Indies and southern 

 Florida. The Red ironwood is a small tree, known also as Darling 

 plum, which reaches a maximum height of about 9 meters, with a trunk diameter 

 of about 2 dm. ; it grows in southern Florida and also on the Bahama islands, and 

 has been confused with the Cuban 

 Reynosia lali}oliaGnseha.ch; the Cuban 

 Reynosia retusa Grisebach is the type 

 of the genus. 



The thin bark is reddish brown, 

 spKtting up into thin plates. The 

 young twigs are sparingly and finely 

 hair)', angular, becoming smooth and 

 gray-brown. The leaves are short- 

 stalked, opposite, leathery, oblong to 

 oval or somewhat obovate, 2 to 4 cm. 

 long, entire, smooth, and nearly equally 

 dull green on both sides, notched or 

 blunt at the apex, narrowed at the 

 base, finely netted- veined, their mar- 

 gins revolute; the very small stipules 

 fall away soon after the leaves unfold. 

 The perfect and regular yellowish 

 green flowers are about 5 mm. broad, borne in small axillary umbels, and open 

 in March or April; the flower-stalks are 4 or 5 mm. long; the 5 ovate pointed 

 sepals are a httle united at the base; there are no petals; the 5 stamens are 

 alternate with the sepals; the ovary is ovoid, 2-celled or 3-cellcd, with i ovule 

 in each cavity; the style is short and thick, the stigma 2-lobed or 3-lobcd. The 

 fruit is an ovoid dark purple drupe, about 1.5 cm. long, tipped with the base of the 

 style, its flesh edible, the stone round and hard. 



The wood is just about as heavy as water, its specific gravity being 1.07; it is 

 dark brown, very hard and dense. 



Fig. 624. Red Ironwood. 



