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Chicharron Amarillo (Drypetes ilicifolia)

Description

This small tree is easily recognized by:elliptic leaves with several large spiny teeth on wavy margins; several showy flowers about 5/8 inch across the 5 rounded bright yellow petals, which shed early; and fruits of 5 or fewer blackish or bluish elliptic drupes 3/8 inch long from the enlarged rounded red base. Evergreen small tree to 15 feet high and 3 inches in trunk diameter. Twigs hairless. Leaves alternate, with petioles inch long. Blades 1- -2- inches long and - -2 inches wide, sharp-pointed at apex, straight or blunt at base, and with several large spiny teeth 1/8 - - inch long along margin, thick and leathery, shiny green, hairless. Flower clusters (panicles) 2-5 inches long at leaf bases. The flower is composed of 5 narrowly elliptic sepals; 5 rounded yellow petals - - 3/16 inch long, narrowed at base, spreading, shedding early; 10 short-stalked stamens, with large anthers opening by pores; and on the enlarged base the pistil with ovary deeply 5-lobed, 5-celled, and 5-ovuled, and erect style. From one flower the base enlarges and becomes inch across and red. There are 5 or fewer elliptic blackish or bluish 1-seeded fruits from a flower. Flowering and fruiting irregularly. Local and uncommon in dry and moist coastal and lower Cordillera forests near sea level along northern, northeastern, and southeastern coasts of Puerto Rico. Also Vieques, St. Thomas, and Virgin Gorda. Not listed by Britton and Wilson. RANGE. - Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands. OTHER COMMON NAMES. - chicharrón, chicharrón amarillo (Dominican Republic); rascabarriga (Cuba); arneau (Haiti). The specific name means holly-leaved.

Taxonomic tree

  • Domain: Eukarya

    • Kingdom: Plantae

      • Phylum: Magnoliophyta

        • Class: Magnoliopsida

          • Order: Malpighiales

            • Family: Putranjivaceae

              • Genus: Drypetes