Close-up photo of a pair of excised flowers. The left flower is female and has a large gynoecium at its center. The right flower is male and has a mass of stamens at its center.
Some Clusia flowers attract bees that collect resin from the flowers & inadvertently cause pollination. In Clusia grandiflora (📷: botanymiguelnino CCBYNC4), resin is produced from staminodia or anther connectives (in ♂) & carpels (in ♀). #Resin #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of the aerial roots, some of which have produced leafy shoots. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photo of a limestone cliff with curtains of long, rope-like aerial roots descending in front of the it. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
Clusia major (Trinidad & Lesser Antilles) has dangling aerial roots that eventually touch the earth—not surprising for a hemiepiphyte that starts life in a tree (or, as here, on a cliff). What is surprising is that sometimes shoots grow from the roots. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of a leafy branch. The leaves are stiff, ovate, aristate, and very shiny. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
Leaf gloss has not received much study from botanists. Why are some leaves glossy & others not? Does gloss have a function? Reflecting excess light? So many questions. An excellent example of ultra-glossy leaves is Garcinia aristata of Cuba & Hispaniola. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of a hand holding three open capsules. The fruits open as described. The central “core” has seven grooves in which the orange, gooey seeds rest. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0
Clusia rosea has fruits of 7 united carpels that open when the outer wall of the fruit separates from the septa (walls) between the carpels. It’s a septifragal capsule. Each seed is covered with an orange-red, gooey aril that attracts bird dispersers. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of a square dish filled with many fruits. The fruits are dull, purplish brown and have large, persistent calyces. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photo of a single fruit cut to reveal the thick, leathery, purple rind and the white segments of edible flesh inside. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) is sometimes called the “Queen of Tropical Fruits.” The leathery reddish purple rind encloses sweet-tart, segmented, white flesh & a few seeds. Delicious! They are tropical fruit royalty & deservedly so. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of a branch and foliage. Flowers in various stages (from bud to withered) emerge along the stem. The flower has white petals and many stamens (looking like a single, white camellia). Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photo of a large brown fruit on a plate. The fruit has been cut in half to reveal a thin, orange mesocarp surrounding a cavity filled with a pair of large seeds. Two pieces of the cut-away fruit are on the side of the plate.
Mamey (Mammea americana) has flowers fairly typical for the family. Large, showy, many stamens in fascicles, superior ovary with no style. This tree also produces an edible fruit, much prized in the Caribbean. Fruit 📷: Arria Belli CCBYSA2. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of the slash on the trunk of a tree exuding yellowish, viscous liquid. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
Close-up photo of the end of a petiole where it has been pulled from the node. The cut surface of the petiole is exuding yellow liquid. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
Clusiaceae have thick, opposite, simple leaves, and–very notably—colorful exudates (variously called resin or latex). 📷1: Trunk slash on Symphonia sp. in Madagascar. 📷2: Yellow exudate from the petiole of Clusia rosea. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of the trunk of a Sabal palm with a young Clusia growing epiphytically on it. The Clusia has thick, fleshy, obovate, opposite leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
This week: Clusiaceae, a tropical family related to Hypericaceae. Clusia rosea occurs in the US, in southern FL, often as a hemiepiphyte, i.e., germinating as an epiphyte (often on Sabal palmetto) but eventually sending roots to the ground. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of a leafy shoot and a single, pendulous, large, actinomorphic flower with many pale pink petals and numerous short stamens.
Resin has another function in some plants: It attracts bees that collect resin from flowers & perform pollination. In Clusia grandiflora (📷: Jonathan Newan ccbync4), resin is produced from staminodia or anther connectives (in males) & carpels (in females). #Clusiaceae #resin #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
white flowers, each with four petals curving back on themselves
Hairy St JohnsWort, yellow flowers and buds, stem is round
Squinancywort, #Rubiaceae, now appearing -- often pinkish but this was pure white; and Hairy St Johns Wort, #Clusiaceae, with round stem and, if you zoom in, tiny black glands round the sepals. Favours chalky ground. Coney banks, Chatham. #WildflowerHour #Botany #KentWildlife
#NewSpecies!
Clusia dotana
A newly discovered clusiaceae from #costarica!
Treatment: treatment.plazi.org/id/1E3EB21B-...
Publication: doi.org/10.1007/s122...
#KewBulletin #ClusiaDotana
#FAIRdata
#openaccess #biology #ecology #biodiversity #conservation #botany #flowers #plants #clusiaceae #fruits
