346 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



This grass is eaten by cattle. It was first collected in Guam by Chamiseo. 

 References: 



Panicum distachyum L. Mant. 1: 183. 1767. 

 Panicum gaudichaudii. 

 Family Poaceae. 



Local names. — Umog, Uuma (Guam). 

 A grass with digitate spikes. Smooth; culms growing in tufts, upright, undivided; 

 leaves flat; spikes 12 to 16, fasciculate, crowded, ascending; spikelets solitary, biseri- 

 ate, hispidulo-scabrous. This species was described from a plant collected on the 

 island of Guam by Gaudichand. 

 References: 



Panicum, gaudichaudii Kunth, Rev. Gram. 2: 385. /. 106. 1830. 

 Digitaria striata Gaudich. Bot. Freyc. Voy. 409. 1826, not Roth, 182L 

 Panoche (Guam). See under Saccharum offieinarum. 

 Papau or Papao (Guam) . 



Caulescent aroids {Alocasia spp. ) with cordate leaves growing along the borders of 

 streams on the island of Guam. The natives distinguish two varieties, papau apaka 

 or " white papau," and papau pinto. Their stems, which are very acrid, grow to a 

 height of 1 to 2 meters. In early times they were eaten by the natives during the 

 periods of famine w T hich followed hurricanes. 

 Papaw. See Carina papaya. 



Papaya (Spanish, Philippines). See Car ica papaya. 

 Papua (Guam, Philippines). See Nothopana.c fruticosum. 

 Paraiso (Spanish, Guam). See Melia azedarach. 

 Parasites. 



Among the parasitic plants are Cassytha filiform is, a leafless, wiry plant growing in 

 thickets, and adhering to the branches by root-like tubercles by Avhich they derive 

 their nourishment; and a species of Balanophora, a low, fleshy, leafless, red plant 

 growing on the roots of other plants, common in thickets, especially on the hill 

 above San Ramon. 



Pariti tiliaceum. Corkwood. Plate lxi, 



Local names. — Pago (Guam); Balibago (Philippines); BAro, Varo (Madagascar); 

 Fau (Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji); Au (Rarotonga); Hau (Hawaii); Managua, Mahoe 

 ( W. Indies); Emajagua (Porto Rico); Managua, Masagua, Masahua (Mexico); 

 Majagua (Panama); Kalau, Kala-hau (Ponape); Gili-fau (Mortlocks); Kal 

 (Yap). 

 A common seacoast tree with spreading branches, yellow flowers with dark centers, 

 and bark which yields a fiber valuable for cordage. Leaves on long petioles, orbic- 

 ular-cordate, shortly acuminate,'entire or crenulate, white or hoary underneath with 

 a close, short tomentum, nearly glabrous above, 7 to 13 cm. in diameter; midrib 

 with an elongated vaginate nectar gland near its base on the lower surface; stipules 

 large, broadly oblong, deciduous; flowers on short peduncles in the upper axils or 

 at the end9 of the branches; involucre campanulate, divided to about the middle 

 into 10 to 12 lobes, about half the length of the calyx; calyx 5-lobed, nearly 2.5 cm. 

 long, with lanceolate 1-nerved lobes; staminal column bearing numerous filaments 

 on the outside below the summit; ovary 5-celled, with 3 or more ovules in each cell; 

 style branches 5, spreading, with terminal capitate stigmas; capsule membranous or 

 coriaceous; seeds nearly globular, with granular surface. 



rln Guam this species is abundant. The natives make cordage of its inner bark, 

 nearly every family being provided with rope-making appliances. The ropes are 

 ' used for halters and lines for tethering cattle and carabaos, for harness, ami for 

 cables for ferrying the bamboo balsas, or rafts, across the mouths of the rivers on the 



