Licania operculipetala
Standl. & L.O.Williams
Chrysobalanaceae
Common Name:
General Information
Licania operculipetala is an evergreen tree with a thick, rounded, compact crown; it can grow 25 - 35 metres tall[
]. The straight, almost cylindrical bole can be 110cm in diameter and is buttressed to about 2.5 metres[
,
734- Title
- Chrysobalanaceae Part 1. Species Plantarum: Flora of the World, Part 9: 1-319
- Publication
-
- Author
- Prance G.T.; Sothers C.A.
- Website
- http://www.ville-ge.ch/cjb
- Publisher
- Australian Biological Resources Study; Canberra.
- Year
- 2003
- ISBN
- 0 642 56832 4
- Description
- An excellent monograph, part of a very ambitious project to catalogue all the plants in the world. It can be downloaded as a PDF file from the Internet.
].
The tree is harvested from the wild as a local source of wood.
Known Hazards
None known
Botanical References
734- Title
- Chrysobalanaceae Part 1. Species Plantarum: Flora of the World, Part 9: 1-319
- Publication
-
- Author
- Prance G.T.; Sothers C.A.
- Website
- http://www.ville-ge.ch/cjb
- Publisher
- Australian Biological Resources Study; Canberra.
- Year
- 2003
- ISBN
- 0 642 56832 4
- Description
- An excellent monograph, part of a very ambitious project to catalogue all the plants in the world. It can be downloaded as a PDF file from the Internet.
Range
Central America - Costa Rica.
Habitat
A canopy or emergent tree in forests along the coastal zones; on well-drained ridges and hills; and the bottomlands of the wetter valleys[
].
Properties
| Other Uses Rating |  |
| Habit | Evergreen Tree |
| Height | 30.00 m |
| Pollinators | Bees, Insects |
| Cultivation Status | Wild |
Cultivation Details
Prefers a moist but well-drained soil[
].
Edible Uses
None known
Medicinal
None known
Other Uses
The reddish wood is locally famous for its extreme hardness and density. It is said that sawmills generally reject it as a timber tree because of the difficulty encountered by blades in cutting through the wood. Apparently, some sections of the wood contain deposits of silicate minerals (drawn in through the roots) - literally giving these fibres a rock-hard texture[
].
Propagation
Seed -
In the wild, the seeds germinate within two months of fruit fall, and the seedlings - using the stored food in the large seed - can grow 20cm during their first two weeks of life[
].
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Useful Tropical Plants Database 2014 by
Ken Fern,
web interface by
Ajna Fern
with help from
Richard Morris.
