Guazuma ulmifolia
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Guazuma ulmifolia is a tree in the mallow family from northeast Argentina , Paraguay , Bolivia , Peru and Brazil to Central America and the Caribbean . It iswidely cultivatedin India and Sri Lanka .
description
Guazuma ulmifolia grows as a semi- evergreen tree up to 25-30 meters high. The trunk diameter reaches up to 60 centimeters. The grayish-brown bark is cracked horizontally and longitudinally to furrowed and thinner to coarser.
The simple and alternate, papery and soft leaves have short stalks. The short petiole is up to 1.5–2 inches long. The leaves are rough on top and slightly hairy, bristly and more or less hairy on the underside, they are up to 12-16 centimeters long and up to 4-6 centimeters wide. They are egg-shaped to obovate, pointed to pointed and sawed on the edge, at the base they are rounded to slightly heart-shaped. The veins are pinnate and slightly embossed on the top and raised on the underside. There are very small, elongated and mostly sloping stipules .
Short, terminal or axillary, dense, zymose to paniculate and whitish hairy inflorescences are formed. The yellow, small and short-stalked, hermaphrodite flowers with a double flower envelope are five-fold. There are 3 or 2; because the originally 5 sepals have grown together differently, small, boat-shaped, keeled on the inside and whitish hairy on the outside. The 5 more or less hairy, upright and concave, short nailed , up to 4 millimeters long petals have forked, ribbon-shaped and white-reddish, longer appendages at the folded tip. There are alternating fertile stamens and staminodes, which are fused with each other in the lower part. The 5 staminodes are triangular and slightly hairy in the upper part, the 5 fertile stamens are three-part with 3 anthers or there are 5 times 3 individual. The fünfkammerige, -kantige and finely hairy ovary is upper constant with short stylus and five more or less free, close-set, short scar branches .
Small, woody, dark brown, roughly round to ellipsoidal and pitted, roughly sculpted or pyramidal warty, mostly non-opening, about 2-4 centimeters large, multi-seeded, five-chambered capsule fruits are formed. The many small, finely textured seeds are flattened on one side, whitish to light brownish about 2.5-3.5 millimeters long and round to ovoid. They are covered by a fine membrane that becomes slimy and sticky when wet ( myxotesta ).
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 16.
use
The still unripe, green fruits are edible and smell of honey.
The seeds are also edible raw or cooked.
The tannin-rich rind and seeds are used medicinally.
Ropes and cords are made from the tough, fibrous bark and the young stems.
The fibrous, coarse and light, non-durable wood is used for various applications.
literature
- K. Kubitzki , C. Bayer: The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. V: Flowering Plants Dicotyledons , Springer, 2003, ISBN 978-3-642-07680-0 , p. 242.
- Christian Westerkamp, Arlete Aparecida Soares, Laércio P. do Amaral Neto: Male and female booths with separate entrances in the tiny flowers of Guazuma ulmifolia (Malvaceae – Byttnerioideae). I. Structural integration. In: Flora. 201, 2006, pp. 389–395, doi: 10.1016 / j.flora.2005.07.015 , online at academia.edu.
- Thomas B. Croat: Flora of Barro Colorado Island. Stanford Univ. Press, 1978, ISBN 0-8047-0950-5 , pp. 593 f.
Web links
- Guazuma ulmifolia at Useful Tropical Plants.
- Guazuma ulmifolia Pitchandikulam Forest Virtual Herbarium (pictures).
- Sterculiaceae on biologie.uni-hamburg.de (detail of the flower).
- Guazuma ulmifolia at Backyard Nature.
Individual evidence
- ^ Thomas B. Croat: Flora of Barro Colorado Island.