Sapium glandulosum
| Sapium glandulosum | |
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| (unranked): | |
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| Species: | S. glandulosum
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| Binomial name | |
| Sapium glandulosum (L.) Morong
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many[1] | |
Sapium glandulosum is a species of tree in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is native to the Neotropics from Mexico and the Caribbean south to Argentina, and it has been cultivated elsewhere.[2][3] It is the most common Sapium species.[3] Its common names include gumtree,[4] milktree,[5] leche de olivo, and olivo macho.[6]
This is a species of tree up to 30 meters tall, usually with some buttress roots and multiple trunks. Smaller woody parts can have short, thick spines. It has a thin, patchy, peeling, scarred outer bark and a granular inner bark. It produces large amounts of milky latex. The alternately arranged leaves have toothed oblong or oval leaves up to 27 centimeters long by 8 wide. New leaves have gland-tipped teeth. The species is monoecious. The inflorescence is a spikelike arrangement of clusters of male flowers with a few female flowers at the base. The tiny rounded purple male flower is barely over a millimeter long. The female flower has 3 styles about 2 millimeters long. The fruit is a greenish-brown, rounded capsule up to a centimeter long which splits into 3 segments, each holding a seed. The seed is covered in a thin layer of red pulp.[3][6]
This tree grows in tropical moist and wet forests.[6]
The copious latex is of high quality and can be used to make rubber. It is difficult to harvest, so it is not commercially useful.[3]
References
- ^ Synonyms: Sapium glandulosum. The Plant List.
- ^ Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
- ^ a b c d Sapium. Malesian Euphorbiaceae Descriptions. National Herbarium Nederland.
- ^ Sapium glandulosum. USDA PLANTS.
- ^ Sapium glandulosum. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).
- ^ a b c Sapium glandulosum. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
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