Lavender flower, red seed pods, leathery leaves
This plant, often a tree, is very common around here, but I saw its flowers only this week and so started making a serious effort to identify it. The lavender flower glistens with something sticky. When the fruit opens, you see red seed pods. The fruit and seed pods are sticky, too. The way the fruit opens, I would have thought it was going to eject the seeds, but the pods cling to the interior of the fruit. (Click on either image for a larger view.)
As usual, what strikes me as one of the most characteristic features of a plant is not what strikes botanists as important. In this case, it is what I consider the succulent nature of the leaves.
I looked at these leaves and the jointed branches and thought “jade plant.” Of course I knew it was not really a jade plant, but I thought there might be some kinship. Not much, it turns out. The jade plant is a member of the Crassulaceae family. That family is so named because of its thick leaves (Latin crassus means thick, fleshy).
Botanists describe the leaves of my plant as coriaceous (leathery) rather than as succulent. It is a member of the Clusiaceae family, named after 16th century Dutch botanist Carolus Clusius. This family may be considered the tropical equivalent of the St. John’s wort family of temperate climates. Interestingly, considering the recent enthusiasm for the mangosteen fruit, this plant is in the same family and subfamily, but not the same tribe, as the mangosteen.
After looking into it a little, I found that the “succulent” quality of a plant does not indicate a genetic relationship at all, since it is a feature that unrelated plants developed in separate ecosystems. At any rate, my plant probably is not succulent – in the sense of storing water – at all, just “leathery.”
The plant is most likely a species in the genus Clusia. That odd feature in the center of the flower, here in side view,
would tell a botanist whether this were a pistillate (female) flower or a staminate (male) flower. I’m too new to this study to say, but according to all my references, the Clusia male and female flowers are separate. I have only seen this one kind of flower, and I think it’s pistillate if indeed it’s equivalent to this image in the Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica
showing a small bee taking resin, which must account for that sticky feel I observed.
Most of the Clusia I see around here are shrubs or small trees, but it’s possible for them to become very large. There’s one near a seasonal stream that must be at least 20 meters tall.
The sap is a white latex which has been used as a caulking material. The tree is sometimes called the autograph tree because you can presumably etch your name in a leaf. Well, I was born in Missouri, so you have to show me…
Okay, well, at least I guess I’ve at least got the right genus name here!
Hi Mary,
A rather belated comment on the Clusia fruit as it’s an interesting structure.
The fruit is a septifragal capsule meaning that on dehiscence the constituent carpels disinterate leaving the septa intact (the white ridges). The “red pods” are actually arils. An aril is a fleshy skin that develops on some seeds to aid dispersal. From what I can gather from this page in Clusia these have developed from the funicle. For a really nice example of this have a look at this page from Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank (check out Acacia cyclops and Afzelia africana). In these examples the aril doesn’t enclose the seed as it does in Clusia but in Magnolia and Euonymus species it does. In all these examples the aril is orange or red and I assume are all bird dispersed.
Here in Tassie I’ve handled a number of small seeded species that have small white arils. These seeds are carried of by ants, the aril is then eaten and ultimately the seed is chucked away.
Now what I’m trying to work out is why the fruit itself is sticky? Is this to try and disuade predation of the seeds by other organisms?
I discovered when working in the Amazon that if you cut the clusia fruit horizontally you can use it to make a print design that dyes fabric. the dye doesnt wash out – its very stable – and the shape is rather nice, a sort of rough circle of little square-ish shapes. I used it to make a logo but I havent got a copy to show you right now. If i find it I can post a link.
Interesting idea, spidea. I’d love to see your logo, and I’ll look around for any remaining Clusia fruits to see if I can try it. I’m not artistic at all, but I do like the idea.
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