t>40 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



stninjr into rosaries and, accordinfj to Padre Blanco/' yield a nutritions flour, which 

 is fed U^ convalescents. In Japan they are pounded in a mortar and cleaned and 

 used as meal and mochi. An infusion of the parched and ground grains, called 

 "kosen" by the Japanese, is used instead of tea. ^ 

 References: 



Ciii.r huTi/ma-jobi L. Sp. PI. 2: 972. 1753. 

 Colales or Kulalis (Guam). See Adenanlhera paronina. 

 Colales (Kulalis) halom-tano (Guam). See Abrus abrus. 

 Cold or Sold (Piiilippines). See Artocarpiis communis. 

 Colocasia antiquorum. See Caladium colocasia. 



Colubrina asiatica. 



Family Kliamnaceae. 



Local names. — Gasoso (Guam); Kabatiti, Uatitik (Philippines); Fisoa (Samoa); 

 Vuso levu (Fiji: " nuich-foam " ) ; Tutu (Tahiti). 

 A glal)rous shrub with alternate leaves and axillary clnstersof small greenish flow- 

 ers having a fleshy disk in the calyx tube, suggesting the genus Euonymus or Cean- 

 othus. Leaves 5 cm. long })y 2.5 cm. Avide, ovate, subacuminate, crenate-serrate, 

 glabrous, membranous, 3-nerved at the base, the midrib pinnately branched; flowers 

 growing in very short axillary cymes; calyx 5-parted, tul)e hemispherical; petals 5, 

 clawed, springing from the margin of the disk, hooded; stamens 5; disk fleshy, 

 filling the calyx tube; ovary sunk in the disk and confluent with it, 3-celled, the cells 

 1-seeded, tardily dehiscent. 



This plant is widely spread in Poh'nesia and is found in India, Ceylon, Java, Bor- 

 neo, New Guinea, Australia, and southwest Africa. InSamoaandinFiji the leaves 

 are used for washing. They form a lather in water like soap. The vernacular 

 name in Fiji signifies "much lather" or "big foam." The special use to which it 

 is devoted in Samoa is the cleansing and bleaching of the white shaggy mats which 

 the natives make of the fiber of an urticaceous plant, Ci/pholophus macrocepJtalus. 

 The natives of Guam do not make use of it except for medicine, nor is it included by 

 Watt in his list of the useful plants of India. 

 References: 



Colubrina asiatica (L.) Brongn. Ann. Sc. Nat. I. 10: 369. 1827. 

 Ceanothus asiaticus L. Sp. PI. 1: 196. 1753. 

 Combretaceae. Myrobalax family. 



This family is represented in Guam 1)y the Malabar almond (Terminalia catuppa) 

 ami the red-flowered mangrove {Lumnitzera littorea). 

 Commelinaceae. 



To this family belong Commelina bengJialensis and Commelina nudiflora, creeping 



plants with small 3-petaled blue flowers from spathe-like bracts, and Zygomenes cris- 



Idtd, with scorpioid cymes of blue flowers inclosed in large falcate, imbricating bracts. 



Commelina beng-halensis. Dewflower. Dayflower. 



Family Commelinaceae. 



Local names. — Anagtilide azul (Spanish); Aligbafigon (Philippines). 

 A pubescent plant with stems 60 to 90 cm. long, dichotomously branched from the 

 base upward, creeping and rooting below; leaves short-jietioled, 2.5 to 7.5 cm. by 



1 to 3.5 cm., ovate or oblong, obtuse, pubescent or villous on both surfaces, unequal 

 at base, cordate, rounded, or cuneate, the veins subparallel, 7 to 11 pairs; inflores- 

 cence inclosed in a spathe; spathes 1 to 3 together, short-peduncled, funnel-shaped 

 or top-shaped, auricled on one side, pubescent or hirsute; upper cyme branched, 



2 or 3-flowered, lower 1 or 2-flowered or without flowers; sepals 3, small, oblong, 



« Flora de Filipinas, 689. 1837. 



6 Agriculture Society of Japan, Useful Plants of Japan, p. 5. 1895. 



