2. REYNOSIA Griseb.
Trees or shrubs, with rigid unarmed terete branches, and scaly buds. Leaves mostly opposite, entire, coriaceous, short-petiolate, reticulate-veined, persistent. Flowers minute, on stout pedicels bibracteolate near the base and two or three times longer than the flower, in small axillary sessile umbels; calyx persistent, 5-lobed, the lobes deltoid or ovate, acute or acuminate, spreading, petaloid, deciduous; disk fleshy; petals 0; stamens 5, inserted on the margin of the disk, rather shorter than the calyx-lobes; filaments incurved; anthers oval; ovary free from the disk, almost superior, conic, 2—3-celled, contracted into a short erect thick style; stigma 2—3-lobed. Fruit drupaceous; flesh thin; stone crustaceo-membranaceous. Seed ovoid or subglobose; seed-coat very thin, conspicuously rugose and tuberculate; embryo axile in copious subcorneous ruminate albumen; cotyledons oblong.
Reynosia is distributed from southern Florida and the Bahama Islands to the Antilles. Four species are recognized; of these, one, a small tree, extends into southern Florida.
The generic name is in honor of Alvaro Reynoso (1830—1888), the distinguished Cuban chemist and writer on agriculture and scientific subjects.
1. [Reynosia septentrionalis] Urb. Red Ironwood. Darling Plum.
Leaves oblong to ovate or obovate, or sometimes nearly orbicular, rounded, truncate or frequently emarginate and usually minutely apiculate at apex, gradually narrowed at base into a short broad petiole, very thick and coriaceous, dark green on the upper, rather paler or often rufous on the lower surface, 1′—1½′ long and ½′ broad, with thickened revolute margins, a stout broad midrib, about five pairs of primary veins spreading nearly at right angles, and numerous reticulate veinlets; unfolding in April and remaining on the branches for one and sometimes for two years. Flowers yellowish green appearing in May, 1/12′ long; sepals ovate, acute. Fruit ripening in Florida in November or frequently not until the following spring, short-obovoid, ½′ long, purple or nearly black, edible, with an agreeable flavor.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with a trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, stout terete rigid branchlets slightly puberulous when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous and gray faintly tinged with red, growing darker in their second season, then often covered by small tubercles and marked by the prominent elevated leaf-scars. Winter-buds minute, chestnut-brown. Bark of the trunk 1/16′—⅛′ thick, dark-red-brown, and divided into large plate-like scales. Wood heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, rich dark brown, with light brown sapwood of 15—20 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Florida, coast and islands from the Marquesas group to the shores of Bay Biscayne and the Everglade Keys, Dade County; common and generally distributed; on the Bahama Islands.