Combretaceae

Combretum Family

By: George Rogers

A small mostly tropical family (about 15 genera, 280 species, BA1) of trees, shrubs, and vines, with a scattering of important cultivated species. Leaves alternate or opposite, simple and without stipules. Flowers often in spikes, the calyx usually more important than the corolla. Stamens rising from the calyx. Ovary inferior, with one chamber. Fruit angled or winged.

Key to Important Combretaceae Cultivated in South Florida

1. Vines, the flowers extremely showy (fragrant, white transforming to red); leaves opposite…Rangoon-Creeper (Quisqualis indica)

1. Trees or large shrubs; leaves alternate or opposite…2

2. Leaves opposite; plant a mangrove; leaves usually notched at the apex; undersides of leaves with small dots (domatia) between the main vein and the margin; petioles with 2 small glands…White Mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa (L.) C. F. Gaertn. (native mangrove, not significantly cultivated and not treated in the Manual)

2. Leaves alternate; plant not a mangrove (or possibly considered so in the case of Conocarpus erectus, see below); leaves not notched at the apex; undersides free of domatia (or these adjacent to the main vein in Conocarpus); petioles without glands…3

3. Leaves > 6” long; fruit flattened, 2” long…Tropical “Almond” (Terminalia catappa) (Also possible is Terminalia muelleri Benth., Australian-Almond which is rare. It differs from T. catappa by having smaller fruits (1” long vs. twice that size).)

3. Leaves < 6” long; fruit much smaller…4

4. Fruits tiny but congested into grape-sized globes (buttons); leaves with the undersides having small dark dots (domatia) along the veins; plants often but not necessarily silvery-pubescent…Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus)

4. Fruits (usually about ½” long, sometimes longer due to deformation by a mite infestation, then long and cylindric like a small cigarette) in dangling spikes, more or less 5-angled…Black-Olive (Bucida buceras, or in Miami-Dade, if with spines, there is also Spiny Black-Olive, B. molinetii (M. Gómez) Alwan & Stace).