Part 2 The Flora of Guam: a manual for the identification fo the vascular plants of the island

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Micronesica

Tree to 10m tall with arching proproots; leaves broadly elliptic, 6.5-125 long, 3.5-6.5 cm wide, apex blunt, base cuneate; petiole 2.5-3.5 cm long; stjpui 4-6 cm long; inflorescence forked 3 or 4 times, mostly 5-8-flowered; calyx-lob* 9-12 mm long; petals 8 mm long, pubescent on the edges; stamens 8; ovary depre sed-conic; style 4-6 mm long; fruit obpyriform, apex strongly contracted rugose, 2.5-4 cm long; hypocotyl to 54cm long.

Malaysia, Formosa, Melanesia, Micronesia, N. Australia, always along sand shores and coral terraces facing the sea. Apra (4437; 4886).

COMBRETACEAE Trees, shrubs, or woody climbers; leaves simple, opposite or alternate, or spiralled; stipules none; flowers bisexual or unisexual, in spikes or racemes; sepals 4-5, connate; petals none or 4-5, distinct; stamens 4-5, opposite the sepals, or 8-10, or 12-15, or many; ovary inferior, or superior, 1-celled, with (l)-2-several or many pendulous ovules; fruit a drupe or samara; seed usually single.—About 18 genera in the tropics.

Two genera in Guam.

Key to local genera 1.

I.

Mangrove swamp tree; with rather large red flowers, the petals obvious; fruit ellipsoid Lumnitzera Strand or upland trees, not in mangrove swamps; flowers tiny, in slender spikes; fruit compressed, narrowly winged, obovate Terminalia LUMNITZERA Willdenow

Small glabrous trees of mangrove swamps. Leaves thick leathery. Flowers in racemes; calyx 5-lobed, persistent; petals oblong; stamens 10 in 2 series (or less); ovary 1-celled; style simple; ovules 2-5; fruit woody, striate.—Two paleotropical species.

One species in Guam.

Lumnitzera littorea (Jack) Voigt, Hort. Suburb. Calcutt. 39. 1845.

Merrill 1914: 120.

NAN A. BACAWAINE. Pyrranthus littoretis W. Jack, Malay Miscellany 2(7): 7. 1822.

Litmnilzera pedicellata Presl, Rel. Haenk. 2: 23. 1830.

Lumnitzera purpurea Presl, Repert. 1: 155. 1834.

Laguncularia purpwea Gaud. Bot. Voy. Freyc. 481, t. 104. "1826" (1830).

Glabrous, small mangrove swamp tree; leaves crowded at branch ends, obovate, leathery, apically rounded, usually notched; up to 8cm long; subsessile; flowers scarlet to crimson red, about 1.5-2 cm long, in spicate racemes; calyx green; fruit ellipsoidal, aging black, crowned by the persistent calyx, 2 cm long, slightly ribbed.

—Fig. 71, PI. lla.

Tndomalaysia to the Pacific, always in mangrove swamps. Sasa R. mouth,

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on the high mesa (4693). This is a fine, handsome species worthy of cultivatio It may be related to E. stelechantha of the Caroline Islands.

EUGENIA UNIFLORA L. Sp. PL 470. 1753. Diels, Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 56:532. 1921 E. decidua Merrill 1914: 12.

PITANGA. SURINAM-CHERRY Small tree or shrub; young leaves coppery-pink; mature leaves opposite, ovat' or narrowly ovate, subglossy, paler beneath, 3-7 cm long, 1.5-3 cm wide, lateral nerves about 7-9 pairs, margins often slightly and irregularly wavy, or entirepetioles 1-3 mm long; flowers commonly axillary, solitary or fascicled, peduncles slender, 1.5-3 cm long, with small bracts; calyx 4-lobed, lobes 3-4 mm long; petals 4, white, thin, fugacious, nearly 1 cm long, obovate; stamens many (about 50), 8 mm long; ovary slightly ridged; fruit a succulent berry with usually 8 deep longitudinal grooves and as many ridges, 1.5 cm long, 2 cm wide, red or very dark red when ripe 1-2-seeded, crowned by calyx-limb, juicy, edible, acid.

A native of Brazil now widespread in cultivation; whence also the name 'pitanga' It has become naturalized in some regions (Hawaii for example); but in Guam I have never seen it outside farms or gardens, as in Yona (5057).

It is curious that Merrill was quite misled by the G.E.S. 469 specimens, on which he based the species E. decidua; he evidently did not know this S. American plant, and the specimens had no data as to its occurrence (a warning to both collectors and taxonomists!).

EUGENIA (?) sp. ignot.

A large tree with a dense rounded crown; flowers in axillary cymose panicles among the leaves; fruit magenta, juicy, edible, 1-1.5 cm long.

I have been unable to identify this plant, which I know only as a single, planted tree in Piti, not far from the Piti School (south) and now on the edge of the new housing area. The fruits are conspicuous in season and are sought by children.

I am not quite certain that it is a Eugenia, though it appears to be.

Piti (4890), edge of new housing area.

MYRTELLA Diels (Saffordiella Merrill 1914: 124).

With the characters of the species.窶年ew Guinea and Micronesia; 3 spp.

Myrtella bennigseniana (Volkens) Diels, Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 56: 529. 1921.

Leptospermum bennigsenianum Volkens, Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 31: 470. 1901.

Saffordiella bennigseniana (Volkens) Merrill 1914: 124.

A small shrub 1-2 m tall, trunk up to 5cm thick; branches many, slender; leaves opposite, decussate, linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate, 3-nerved, margins slightly recurved, midrib grooved ventrally, slightly prominent dorsally, subsessile, blade dark green, less than 1 cm long, about 1-1.5 mm wide, brown-dotted beneath, obtuse or acute; young growth whitish-pubescent; flowers single in axils of upper leaves, on pedicels 5mm long; bracts 2, linear, 4mm long; calyx-lobes 5, nearly 3 mm long; petals 5, white, narrowly obovate, 3 mm long; stamens many, equalling petals; style filiform glabrous, just exceeding the petals; stigma minute; fruit thin

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reduced leaves. Calyx 5 mm long in flower, 10 mm long in fruit, ribbed. Coroll blue. Nutlets about 1.2-1.5 mm long, slightly notched at the end.

Tropical America; now widespread as a weed, usually in dry open locations not at high altitudes. Manengon (3862), Umatac (4393).

Hyptispectinata (L.) Poit., Ann. Mus. Paris 7: 474, t. 30. 1806.

Merrill 1914: 137.

MUMUTUN LAHE. M. PALAOAN. M. ADEMELON Nepeta pectinata L. Syst. ed. 10, 1099, 1759.

Mesosphaerumpectinatum (L.) O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 2: 525. 1891.

Safford 1905: 324.

Slender erect herbaceous subshrub with 4-angled puberulent stems; foliage aromatic if rubbed and crushed; leaves ovate or ovate-elliptic, cuneate to rounded (even subcordate) at base, acute or blunt at tip, puberulent or glabrescent dorsally crenate-serrate, 2-9 cm long, 1-6 cm wide; flowers subsessile, white to pale violet, in cymules axillary to reduced leaves, subtended by linear pubescent bracts 1-3 mm long; calyx about 2 mm, enlarging in fruit to 4 mm; corolla 2.5 mm, lower lip darker; filaments somewhat pubescent; nutlets oblong, 1 mm long, black.

A Caribbean plant, now widespread as a tropical weed. First collected in Guam by Gaudichaud, and by Lesson. Robust plants may reach 4 m tall!

Hyptis spicigera Lamarck, Encycl. 3: 185. 1789. Merrill 1914: 137.

Erect branching subglabrous herbs to 1.5m tall with quadrangular scabrous stems, petiolate leaves with oblong-lanceolate acuminate serrate blades to 6 cm long with decurrent base. Spikes oblong, terminal, dense, 2-6 cm long, of many crowded flowers. Corollas purplish, 3-4 mm long; calyx accrescent (to 6 mm long in fruit), ribbed and reticulate, with subulate teeth.

A tropical American species now of wide distribution. Weedy, sometimes gregarious, in dry grassland.

LAVANDULA Linnaeus Aromatic shrubs or perennial herbs, stellate-tomentose; leaves entire; verticillasters grouped into a false terminal spike; calyx 13-nerved, 5-toothed; corolla blue or violet, longer than the calyx, bilabiate; stamens 4, included; filaments glabrous; ovary 4-lobed; nutlets glabrous.—Europe and Atlantic Is., 28 spp.

LAVANDULA VERA DC. Fl. France Suppl. 398. 1805.

LAVENDER. L. officinalis Chaix, Vill. Hist. PL Dauph. 363.

Erect slightly shrubby herb, stems quadrangular, leaves subsessile, linearlanceolate, white-glandular, stellate-tomentose, 2-6 cm long, 2-6 mm wide; false spikes long-stalked; flowers crowded; bracts 4-5 mm long; calyx 5 m m ; corolla 8 mm long.

A European species occasional in cultivation.

MENTHA Linnaeus Aromatic herbs with entire or serrulate leaves; cymes axillary, many-flowered,