322 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



Meibomia umbellata. Bush tick-trefoil. 



Local names. — Palaga hilitai (Guam); Lala (Samoa). 

 A shrub 1 to 2 meters high growing on the seabeach, with densely downy young 

 branches, 3-foliolate leaves, and axillary umbels of whitish papilionaceous flowers. 

 Branches terete; petioles 2.5 cm. or less long, slightly furrowed; leaflets subcoria- 

 ceous with raised costate veins, green and glabrous above, thinly gray-canescent or 

 nearly glabrescent beneath, end leaflet larger than side ones, roundish, or broad- 

 oblong, 5 to 7.5 cm. long; umbels 6 to 12-flowered; pedicels short, unequal; calyx 4 

 mm. long, densely silky, 4-parted, 2-bracted; bracts minute, deciduous; standard of 

 corolla obovate, keel blunt; stamens monadelphous; pod jointed, 3.5 to 5 cm. long, 

 the joints 3 to 5, thick, glabrescent or silky, indented at both sutures. 



A strand shrub of Avide tropical distribution. Common near the beach in Guam. 

 Samoa, Fiji, and the Malay Archipelago. In Samoa it is used for perches for pet 

 fruit pigeons. The Guam name means " lizard's bush." 

 References: 

 Meibomia umbellata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 1 : 197. 1891. 

 Uedysarum-umbellatum L. Sp. PL 2: 747. 1753. 

 Desmodium umbellatum DC. Prod. 2: 325. 1825. 

 Melastoma denticulata. Same as Melastoma mariannum. 



Melastoma marianum. Melastoma. 



Family Melastomataceae. 

 Local names. — Gafau (Guam). 

 A low, hairy shrub growing on the coast, described by Charles Naudin in his 

 monograph of the Melastomataceae from specimens collected near Agana by Hombron 

 and Le Guillou. It is injurious to chickens. Where it grows they can not be raised. 

 It is erect and branching with flowers comparatively small for this genus, short 

 stamens usually corresponding in number with the petals; branches rust-colored, 

 with appressed stiff hairs and scurfy scales at last falling off; leaves oblong-ovate, 

 acuminate, acute, almost entire, 5-nerved with a marginal nerve on each side, the 

 blade on both surfaces covered with small stiff appressed sharp hairs; flowers at the 

 apex of the branches, subcorymbose, 5-merous; anthers obtuse, the connective of all 

 with a simply articulate filament. 



This plant at first glance resembles M. denticulatum; it is different, however, on 

 account of the structure of the connective of the anthers and some other characters. 

 The stem sometimes almost simple, more frequently branching, those examined by 

 Naudin a half meter long; leaves 4 to 7 cm. in length; calyx covered with chaffy 

 hairs, with 5 ovate lobes almost equal in length to the tube, with minute teeth 

 between the divisions; petals broadly ovate, somewhat notched at the apex, about 

 12 mm. long and broad; anthers very short for this genus, oblong-ovoid, obtuse; the 

 connective of the larger ones beneath the cells short, not very much curved, not 

 manifestly thickened nor bilobed at the insertion of the filament; that of the smaller 

 ones scarcely perceptible; fruit a berry, 5-celled and of nearly the size of a pea." 

 References : 



Melastoma marianum Naud. Ann. Sc. Nat. III. 13: 276. 1849. 

 Melastoma medinillana Gaudich. Same as Medirdlla rosea. 

 Melastomataceae. Melastoma family. 



This family is represented in Guam by Melastoma marianum and Medinitta rosea. 

 Melia azedarach. Pride of India. Chinaberry. 



Family Meliaceae. 



Local names. — Paraiso (Guam; Mexico; Philippines); Jacinto (Panama) ; Arbol 

 de Paraiso (Spanish); Persian Lilac (India); Syrian Bead Tree (Mediterra- 

 nean). 



"Charles Naudin, Monograph of the Melastomataceae, Arm. Sci. Nat., ser. 3., vol. 

 13, p. 276,1849. 



