5. MISANTECA Cham. & Schl.
Trees with terete branchlets. Leaves coriaceous, persistent. Flowers perfect, minute, on slender pedicels, in terminal or axillary cymose panicles; peduncles and pedicels from the axils of acuminate caducous bracts and bractlets; perianth fleshy, ovoid or obovoid, 6-toothed; stamens 9, inserted near the middle of the perianth, those of the outer rank united into a fleshy column, furnished at base with three pairs of glands, inclosing the pistil and slightly longer than the perianth, those of the inner ranks, sterile, short or obsolete; anthers extrorse, 2-celled, the cells united; ovary gradually narrowed into a thick style as long as the staminal tube; stigma capitate. Fruit baccate, olive-shaped, surrounded at base by the enlarged ligneous capsular perianth of the flower much thickened on the margin; pericarp thin and fleshy; endocarp thin, crustaceous; seed filling the cavity of the fruit; testa thin, crustaceous; hilum minute, apical; cotyledons plano-convex, fleshy; radicle superior, minute.
Of the three species of the genus now known one occurs in southern Florida and Cuba, and the others in tropical Mexico.
The name of the genus is derived from the name of the tree, Palo Misanteca at Misantha, near the coast of the state of Vera Cruz where the type species was discovered.
1. [Misanteca triandra] Mez.
Leaves elliptic-lanceolate, ovate or broad-elliptic, entire, abruptly long-pointed and acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed and acuminate at base, deeply tinged with red and villose on the under side of the midrib when they unfold, soon glabrous, and at maturity dark green and lustrous above, pale below, 3′—4′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, with slightly undulate margins, a prominent midrib, slender primary veins, and reticulate veinlets conspicuous on the lower surface; petioles stout, narrow wing-margined at apex, pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous, ⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers glabrous or puberulous, purplish, about 1/12′ long, in 3—5-flowered cymes on slender peduncles, in pubescent panicles shorter than the leaves; tube of the perianth funnel-form, the lobes equal, triangular, acute; column of stamens pilose; ovary glabrous. Fruit in few-fruited clusters on much elongated and thickened peduncles, ellipsoidal or slightly ovoid, acute, dark blue, ⅘′ long and ⅗′ thick; cupule light red, thickened and verrucose, acute at base, the margin reflexed, thin and entire on the inner edge, thick and crenulate on the outer edge; seed ellipsoidal, pointed at apex, rounded at base, light brown, slightly ridged when dry.
A tree in Florida 40°—50° high, with a tall trunk 15′—20′ in diameter, small spreading and pendent branches forming a broad round-topped head, and slender red branchlets pubescent when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, and marked by numerous large pale lenticels.
Rich hummocks between Miami and Homestead, Dade County, Florida; in Cuba and Jamaica.