Guaiacum sanctum

Guaiacum sanctum
specimen at United States Botanic Garden
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Clade:Angiosperms
Clade:Eudicots
Clade:Rosids
Order:Zygophyllales
Family:Zygophyllaceae
Genus:Guaiacum
Species: G. sanctum
Binomial name
Guaiacum sanctum
Synonyms[2]

Guaiacum guatemalense Planch. ex Rydb.

Guaiacum sanctum, commonly known as holywood or holywood lignum-vitae, is a species of flowering plant in the creosote bush family, Zygophyllaceae. It ranges from southern Florida in the United States and the Bahamas south to Central America and the Greater Antilles.[2] It is threatened by habitat loss.

Guaiacum sanctum is the national tree of the Bahamas.[3]

Properties

This small tree is slow growing, reaching about 7 m (23 ft) in height with a trunk diameter of 50 cm (20 in). The tree is essentially evergreen throughout most of its native range. It is shade tolerant. It fruits between the age for 30 and 70 years over the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere.[2]

The wood is hard, heavy and self-lubricating and has a Janka Hardness Score of 4500,[4] which is one of the hardest in the world. It can sink when placed in water.[5] There are fine ripple marks on the wood.[6]

Leaves

Leaves

The leaves are compound, 2.5–3 cm (0.98–1.18 in) in length, and 2 cm (0.79 in) wide. They are dark green in color and occur as three to five pairs of leaflets.[7] They fold together during the hottest parts of the day.[8]

Flower

The purplish blue flowers have five petals each. They can grow individually or in clusters at the ends of branches.[8] The flowers have both male and female parts (stamens and pistils) and yield yellow pods containing black seeds encapsulated separately in a red skin.[9]

Flower

Uses

This tree is one of two species which yield the valuable Lignum vitae wood, the other being Guaiacum officinale.

The wood has been used for making specific parts of ships that needed to be self-lubricating so that they would last longer.

The tree is considered to have medicinal value, used mostly for home remedies, though it had also been used to treat Syphilis.[10] The bark can be steeped to create tonics.[3]

It is also used as an ornamental plant.[7]

Threats

The type of rainforest (tropical-deciduous and dry forests) that holywood is found in are the most threatened ecosystems in the world.[2]

The plant was exploited till it was endangered due to use for timber and medical resin. Deforestation also occurred to create more human managed areas like farmland, cities, etc.[2] This has caused habitat fragmentation for the species, which reduces the chances of lowering its risk status.[11] Moreover, since this is a slow growing tree, it becomes harder to regrow and maintain sizable forests of it. It can be cultivated to grow faster, but needs to be watered regularly and to have well drained soil.[9]

It has no major pests[9] and though there were cases of illegal trade in 2008, this is no longer a major threat to the species.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Americas Regional Workshop (Conservation & Sustainable Management of Trees, Costa Rica) 1998. Guaiacum sanctum. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Archived 2014-06-27 at the Wayback Machine. Downloaded on 21 August 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Guaiacum sanctum". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 2009-12-06.
  3. 1 2 "National Symbols of the Bahamas". Bahamas Facts and Figures. TheBahamasGuide. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
  4. ↑ Friedrich, K; Akpan, E; Wetzel, B (16 May 2017). "Structure and mechanical/abrasive wear behavior of a purely natural composite: black-fiber palm wood". Journal of Materials Science. 52 (17): 10217–10229. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  5. ↑ "Guaiacum sanctum". Nature's Notebook. National Phenology Network. Retrieved 2018-04-15.
  6. ↑ Record, Samuel J. “Tier-Like Arrangement of the Elements of Certain Woods.” Science, vol. 35, no. 889, 1912, pp. 75–77. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1638125.
  7. 1 2 "Guaiacum sanctum - Plant Finder". www.missouribotanicalgarden.org. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  8. 1 2 "Holywood lignum vitae (Guaiacum sanctum)". Wildscreen Arkive. Wildscreem. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 Stubbins, Mark (1999). Flowering Trees of Florida. Florida: Pineapple Press. pp. 78–81.
  10. ↑ MUNGER, ROBERT S. “Guaiacum, the Holy Wood from the New World.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, vol. 4, no. 2, 1949, pp. 196–229. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24619141.
  11. ↑ Eric J. Fuchs, James L. Hamrick; Genetic Diversity in the Endangered Tropical Tree, Guaiacum sanctum (Zygophyllaceae), Journal of Heredity, Volume 101, Issue 3, 1 May 2010, Pages 284–291, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esp127
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.