| Clusia rosea | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Malpighiales |
| Family: | Clusiaceae |
| Genus: | Clusia |
| Species: | C. rosea |
| Binomial name | |
| Clusia rosea | |
| Synonyms [3] | |
| |
Clusia rosea, the autograph tree, copey, cupey, [4] balsam apple, pitch-apple, and Scotch attorney, [5] is a tropical and sub-tropical flowering plant species in the family Clusiaceae. The name Clusia major is sometimes misapplied to this species. [6]
Clusia rosea is a tree native to the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, Hispaniola (such as in Los Haitises National Park), Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Florida. [7] [8]
It is a hemiepiphyte; that is, it grows as an epiphyte on rocks or other trees at the start of its life and behaving like a strangler fig as it gets larger. Like a strangler fig, it successfully competes for light by outgrowing, overtopping and "strangling" its host tree with its many aerial roots. [9] [7] [8] [10] These roots are among the fastest growing known; up to 12 inches (30 cm) in 24 hours. [11]
The petals are pink to white. The thin upper leaf tissue registers 'writing' giving it the common name "autograph tree". The tree produces a fleshy, light green toxic fruit; once the fruit splits, the seeds are consumed by birds and other wildlife. Clusia species are normally dioecious, but in C. rosea, there are pistillate (female) individuals only, and seeds are formed through agamospermy.
This plant is cultivated as an ornamental plant, for its flowers, foliage, and fruit. It is planted in gardens as a fruiting and ornamental tree in sub-tropical climates, and used as a houseplant in many climates. [12]
Clusia rosea has become a great threat to Sri Lanka, Hawaii, and many other tropical countries as an invasive plant.
In Sri Lanka it is spreading rapidly on the mountains of the central hill country. It especially grows on rocks and rock outcrops where it forms dense thickets. Being a hemiepiphyte that resembles a strangling fig, it also sprouts on branches and trunks of native trees and rapidly overgrows and strangles them. It therefore poses a great threat to what little remains of the native submontane forests, and the unique native vegetation around rock outcrops, such as on the Hantana mountain range near Kandy. It is known as Gal Goraka (ගල් ගොරක) or Gal Idda (ගල් ඉද්ද) in Sinhalese. [13] [14] [15]
It is one of Hawaii's most invasive plants and grows in forests and open, disturbed areas in low elevations. It is spread by birds which eat its fruits. [7] [8] [16]
The leaves were used to make playing cards in the West Indies. Some sign their autographs on the leaves and watch them grow. [17]
In Puerto Rico, in the past, parts of the plant were used to make game balls, to make tar and for firewood. [4]
A banyan, also spelled banian, is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adjacent prop roots, allowing the tree to spread outwards indefinitely. This distinguishes banyans from other trees with a strangler habit that begin life as an epiphyte, i.e. a plant that grows on another plant, when its seed germinates in a crack or crevice of a host tree or edifice. "Banyan" often specifically denotes Ficus benghalensis, which is the national tree of India, though the name has also been generalized to denominate all figs that share a common life cycle and used systematically in taxonomy to denominate the subgenus Urostigma.
Ficus rubiginosa, the rusty fig or Port Jackson fig, is a species of flowering plant native to eastern Australia in the genus Ficus. Beginning as a seedling that grows on other plants (hemiepiphyte) or rocks (lithophyte), F. rubiginosa matures into a tree 30 m (100 ft) high and nearly as wide with a yellow-brown buttressed trunk. The leaves are oval and glossy green and measure from 4 to 19.3 cm long and 1.25 to 13.2 cm wide.
Spathodea is a genus in the plant family Bignoniaceae. The single species it contains, Spathodea campanulata, is commonly known as the African tulip tree. The tree grows between 7–25 m (23–82 ft) tall and is native to tropical dry forests of Africa. It has been nominated as among 100 of the "World's Worst" invaders.
Cassia fistula, also known as golden shower, purging cassia, Indian laburnum, kani konna, or pudding-pipe tree, is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. The species is native to the Indian subcontinent and adjacent regions of Southeast Asia. It is the official state flower of Kerala state and Delhi UT in India. It is also a popular ornamental plant and is also used in herbal medicine.
The Wahiawa Botanical Garden, 27 acres (11 ha) is a botanical garden on a high plateau in central Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, United States, located between the Wai'anae and Ko'olau mountain ranges. It is one of the Honolulu Botanical Gardens, and home to a collection of tropical flora requiring a relatively cool environment, with emphasis on native Hawaiian plants. It is nicknamed the "tropical jewel" of the Botanical Gardens. The Garden's site began in the 1920s, when the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association leased land from the State of Hawaiʻi for experimental tree planting. Most of the Garden's large trees date from that era. The property was transferred to Honolulu in 1950, and opened as a botanical garden in 1957. It is open seven days a week, from 9 am to 4 pm.
Ficus religiosa or sacred fig is a species of fig native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is also known as the bodhi tree, peepul tree, peepal tree, pipala tree or ashvattha tree. The sacred fig is considered to have a religious significance in four major religions that originated on the Indian subcontinent: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. Hindu and Jain ascetics consider the species to be sacred and often meditate under it. Gautama Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment under a tree of this species. The sacred fig is the state tree of the Indian states of Odisha, Bihar and Haryana.
Syzygium cumini, commonly known as Malabar plum, Java plum, black plum, jamun, jaman, jambul, or jambolan, is an evergreen tropical tree in the flowering plant family Myrtaceae, and favored for its fruit, timber, and ornamental value. It is native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It can reach heights of up to 30 m (100 ft) and can live more than 100 years. A rapidly growing plant, it is considered an invasive species in many world regions.
Clusia is the type genus of the plant family Clusiaceae. Comprising 300-400 species, it is native to the Neotropics. The genus is named by Carl Linnaeus in honor of the botanist Carolus Clusius.
Mesua ferrea, the Ceylon ironwood, or cobra saffron, is a species in the family Calophyllaceae native to the Indomalayan realm. This slow-growing tree is named after the heaviness and hardness of its timber. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental for its graceful shape, grayish-green foliage with a striking pink to red flush of drooping young leaves, and its large, fragrant white flowers. It is the national tree of Sri Lanka, as well as the state tree of Mizoram and state flower of Tripura in India.
Miconia calvescens, the velvet tree, miconia, or bush currant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melastomataceae. It is native to Mexico and Central and South America and it has become one of the world's most invasive species.
Prosopis pallida is a species of mesquite tree. It has the common names kiawe, huarango and American carob, as well as "bayahonda", "algarrobo pálido", and "algarrobo blanco". It is a thorny legume, native to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, particularly drier areas near the coast. While threatened in its native habitat, it is considered an invasive species in many other places.
The tembusu is a large evergreen tree in the family Gentianaceae, native to Southeast Asia. It is the Malay name for Cyrtophyllum fragrans.
Syzygium malaccense is a species of flowering tree native to tropical Asia and Australia. It is one of the species cultivated since prehistoric times by the Austronesian peoples. They were carried and introduced deliberately to Remote Oceania as canoe plants. In modern times, it has been introduced throughout the tropics, including many Caribbean countries and territories.
Cordia subcordata is a species of flowering tree in the borage family. It can be found growing in eastern Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, northern Australia and the Pacific Islands including Hawaii. The plant is known by a variety of names, including kou, beach cordia, sea trumpet, and kerosene wood.
A hemiepiphyte is a plant that spends part of its life cycle as an epiphyte. The seeds of primary hemiepiphytes germinate in the canopy and initially live epiphytically. They send roots downward, and these roots eventually make contact with the ground. Secondary hemiepiphytes are root-climbers that begin as rooted vines growing upward from the forest floor, but later break their connection to the ground. When this happens, they may send down long roots to the ground.
Syzygium caryophyllatum is a species of plant in the family Myrtaceae.
Ficus aurea, commonly known as the Florida strangler fig, golden fig, or higuerón, is a tree in the family Moraceae that is native to the U.S. state of Florida, the northern and western Caribbean, southern Mexico and Central America south to Panama. The specific epithet aurea was applied by English botanist Thomas Nuttall who described the species in 1846.
Daphnopsis helleriana is a rare species of flowering plant in the genus Daphnopsis of the family Thymelaeaceae. It is endemic to Puerto Rico, where there were only four populations remaining in 1992, with a total of 125 individuals. It was federally listed as an endangered species of the United States in 1988.
Chrysophyllum oliviforme, commonly known as the satinleaf, is a medium-sized tree native to Florida, the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and Belize. It is also known as damson plum, wild star-apple and saffron-tree. It gets the name "satinleaf" from the distinctive colors of the leaves. The top of the leaf is dark green while the bottom is light brown or copper. This distinctive look makes it a very aesthetically pleasing tree that is commonly used as an ornamental in yards and public spaces.
Malwattage Celestine Violet Savitri Gunatilleke is professor emeritus at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka's Central Province. She has had a long career in forest ecology and has been a leader in quantitative ecology and education. Most of her research has focused in the Sinharaja rain forest in Sri Lanka. She considers her main contribution to forest ecology to be spreading the idea that successful forest conservation depends on local conservationists. In line with this, she is proud of her students and their accomplishments in the field of conservation.
