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.
3. KRUGIODENDRON Urb.
A small tree or shrub, with slender unarmed terete branches roughened by numerous small lenticels, and minute scaly buds. Leaves opposite or obliquely opposite, or sometimes alternate on lower branches, ovate or oval, often emarginate, coriaceous, entire, short-petiolate, feather-veined, persistent; stipules acuminate, persistent. Flowers greenish yellow, on short slender pedicels, in axillary simple or dichotomously branched cymes; calyx broad-obconic, 5-lobed, the lobes triangular, acute, erect or spreading, conspicuously crested on the inner surface, deciduous; disk annular, broad, fleshy, 5-lobed, surrounding the base of the ovary; petals 0; stamens 5, inserted under the margin of the disk; anthers ovoid or ovoid-orbicular, obtuse; ovary conic, imperfectly 2-celled; styles short and thick, united nearly to the apex, the branches spreading and stigmatic on the inner face; ovule ascending from the base of the cell. Fruit 1-seeded, oval or ovoid; flesh thin and black; wall of the stone thin and bony. Seed ellipsoid, compressed, without albumen; seed-coat membranaceous; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons thick and fleshy, obovate or elliptic.
Krugiodendron, with a single species, is confined to southern Florida and the West Indies.
The generic name is in honor of Leopold Krug (1833—1898), a student of the flora of the Antilles.