Chrysobalanus

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Chrysobalanus

Description

Shrubs or small trees. Leaves glabrous on both surfaces, without stomatal crypts. Stipules small, connate-axillary, caducous. Inflorescence terminal or axillary cymules or a panicle of cymules. Flowers hermaphrodite. Petals 5, longer than calyx lobes, not clawed. Stamens 15-26, all fertile, inserted on margin of disk; Ovary inserted at base of receptacle, densely pilose; Fruit a small fleshy drupe, epicarp smooth and ridged, endocarp hard, thin, glabrous on interior, with 4-8 prominent longitudinal ridges which correspond to lines of fracture for seedling escape.

Distribution

Asia-Tropical, Pacific: Fiji (Fiji), West Africa present, neotropics present present
Three species, one in West Africa and the Neotropics, two confined to the Neotropics. One species naturalized in Malesia and Fiji.

Uses

Edible fruit. The shrub is used for the stabilization of dunes.

Citation

PRANCE 1972 – In: Fl. Neotrop.: 14
HOOK. f. 1865 – In: Benth. & Hook. f., Gen. Pl. 1: 606
DC. 1825 – In: Prod.: 525
HOOK. f 1867 – In: Mart., Fl. Bras. 14: 7