Origin
Caribbean, Cuba to Grenada
Ecological Impact
Widely planted in southern Florida landscapes. Invades mangrove forests and other coastal areas (M. McMahon, Biological and Environmental Consulting, and R. Hammer, Miami-Dade County Parks Department, 1996 personal communications). Dense stands of seedlings and saplings observed along the fringes of coastal mangrove and buttonwood forests and occasionally in inland hardwood forests as well. Lsited as a Category I invasive by the Florida Invasive Species Council.
Description
Straight-trunked tree typically 12 m (40 ft) tall. Young stems green, 4-angled, minutely hairy, becoming gray with age. Leaves opposite, simple, petioled, elliptic, 10-15 cm (4-6 in) long; blades very shiny, with numerous parallel veins at right angles to midvein; margins entire; blade tips rounded to minutely notched. Flowers small, in few-flowered racemes at leaf axils, white, fragrant, with many yellow stamens. Fruit a 1-seeded, hard-shelled drupe, brown, globose, about 2.5 cm (1 in) wide. Fruits inedible for humans, those of related C. inophyllum known to be poisonous.
Identification Tips
May be confused with mast-wood, C. inophyllum L., the Asian exotic also cultivated in south Florida and reported as naturalized (Wunderlin et al. 1996), but its trees often taller, its leaves larger, to 20 cm (8 in) long and 10 cm (4 in) wide, not as shiny; its flower clusters larger, showier; and its fruits to 4 cm (1.5 in) wide.
History
Introduced in southern Florida 1964 (Little and Wadsworth 1964).
Range
Locally naturalized in coastal regions of Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Martin counties (R. Hammer, Miami-Dade County Parks Department, and D. F. Austin, Florida Atlantic University, personal observations).
Management Strategies
Do not plant. Remove plant and root system. Herbicide, basal bark: 10%-20% Garlon® 4. Follow-up herbicide applications may be necessary. Manual: hand pull seedlings.