Trees of Cloudbridge
Cornus disciflora (Lloró)
Description:
Cornus disciflora is a slow-growing, medium-size tree that reaches 25 m in height and 50 to 60 cm d.b.h.
Natural history:
Distribution: A
cloud forest species with a wide range, extending from northern Mexico
through Central America. It has been documented in Costa Rica,
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico (Chiapas; Guerrero; Jalisco; Michoacan;
Nayarit; Oaxaca; Sonora; Tamaulipas; Veracruz), Panama. It is
mainly found in the upper ranges of cloud forest, penetrating into
pine-oak forest, between 1,900 and 2,250 m.
How
to recognize: It has a rounded crown; smooth, yellow-gray bark; and foliage of a very peculiar light green color.
Uses: The
vernacular name, llorón, means "the crying one" -- it is said
that when you put your ear close to the trunk you hear crying.
Sources and Links:
http://www.redlist.org/search/details.php?species=39061
http://www.rngr.net/Reforestation/Publications/TTSMb/Folder.2003-07-11.4726/PDF.2004-01-12.0706
Scientific Information:
| Division: |
Magnoliophyta (Flowering plants)
|
| Class: |
Magnoliopsida (Dicots)
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| Family: |
Cornaceae
|
| Species: |
Cornus disciflora |
Photo
Identification Guide: Cornus disciflora (Lloró)
| Leaves.
Leaves are opposite, without stipules, and petiolate; the blade is
oblong or ovate-elliptic, acuminate, cuneate, about 7 to 14 cm long and
2 to 6 cm wide, with three to five ascending veins, above opaque and
essentially glabrous, and beneath paler and minutely sericeous or
tomentose. Light green with prominent veins.
|
|
Flowers.
Inflorescences are terminal or subterminal, pedunculate, capituliform,
involucrate; flowering heads are about 1 cm in diameter, many-flowered,
subtended by two pairs of deciduous, broadly ovate, sericeous bracts
about 5 mm long. Flowers are minute, the petals white, the stamens
somewhat shorter than the petals and widely exerted.
Fruits and Seeds:
|
|
| Fruit and Seeds. Cornus
disciflora blooms and produces fruit most of the year. The fruit is a
drupe, red to purplish black, broadly oblong-ellipsoid, sparsely
sericeous to glabrate, and up to about 10 mm long and 7 mm wide. When
the fruits are mature the pericarp becomes purplish black.
|
|
| Trunk. It has a conical trunk. |
|
Cloudbridge: Bridging
a Costa Rican cloud forest