Clusia rosea (PROSEA)
 |
Introduction |
Clusia rosea Jacq.
- Protologue: Enum. syst. pl.: 34 (1760).
Synonyms
Clusia major auct. non L.
Vernacular names
- Balsam apple (En). Pitch apple (Am). Copey (Sp).
Distribution
The Antilles, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela; planted elsewhere in the tropics and occasionally naturalized, e.g. in Sri Lanka.
Uses
In tropical America, the bitter gum is well known because of its drastic, sometimes dangerous, purgative properties. It is used to allay toothache and calluses on the feet. The dried and powdered gum is widely traded and used as a resolutive plaster to treat fractures, dislocations and burns. Decoctions of bark and fruit rind are applied to soothe rheumatic pains. A leaf or flower decoction is used internally as a pectoral to relieve chest complaints. The gum is burned in houses as a disinfectant and is also used for caulking boats. The reddish wood is applied in house construction, e.g. for poles. C. rosea is planted for ornamental purposes in the southern United States (Florida), where it is a handsome, fast-growing tree with a broad spreading crown, and also in South-East Asia. It is commonly cultivated as an indoor pot plant for its decorative foliage.
Observations
A shrub to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall, sometimes epiphytic; leaves broadly obovate, stiffly coriaceous, apically rounded to emarginate, with numerous lateral veins, petiole stout; flowers often solitary, petals 3-4 cm long, white or pink; fruit turbinate, 4-8 cm long, whitish-green, often with brown outside, whitish inside; seeds ovoid, white with a scarlet arillode. In its natural area of distribution C. rosea occurs in evergreen and semideciduous lowland forest up to 500 m altitude, but also on coastal limestone and in savanna.
Selected sources
67, 71, 121, 143, 188, 305, 586, 646, 782.
Main genus page
Authors
R.E. Nasution
