From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Castilla (plant)

Genus of flowering plants

Summary

Genus of flowering plants

Castilla (sometimes incorrectly spelled Castilloa) is a genus of three species of large trees in the family Moraceae, native to Central and South America.

Etymology

This genus is named after Juan Diego del Castillo (d. 1793), a Spanish botanist who was a friend of Vicente Cervantes, who chose the name in his friend's honor.

Description

Castilla species are monoecious or dioecious trees up to 40 meters tall, with buttressed trunks and abundant white latex of commercial value. The branchlets have scars left by the fallen stipules. The leaves are oblong to elliptic, with entire margins. The inflorescences are surrounded by bracts and have small flowers. The male flowers are borne in lengthwise-folded kidney-shaped inflorescences and female flowers in globose inflorescences. The infrutescence varies in shape and has orange or red fruits.

Ecology

The Panama rubber tree ''Castilla elastica'', showing the scar where a branch has dropped. A recently fallen branch is posed at right

Castilla species exhibit a phenomenon known as cladoptosis, the regular shedding of branches. This may be an adaptation to prevent the growth of climbing plants.

Castilla elastica is a weedy tree which has become invasive in areas where it has been introduced, such as in Tanzania and the South Pacific.

Uses

The main species is Castilla elastica, one of several plants from which rubber has been extracted. The vernacular name is Panama rubber tree or castilloa rubber. The pre-Columbian MesoAmericans used the latex of this plant to make a ball used in a ceremonial game.

The Miskitu and Mayangna peoples of the Mosquito Coast, stretching from the Honduras to Nicaragua, traditionally made fabric from the bark of the Tunu rubber tree (Castilla tunu).

Species

Image	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
[[File:Castilla elastica 05.JPG	120px]]	Panama rubber tree, Castilloa rubber, palo de hule, olicuáhuitl	Castilla elastica Sessé	Mexico, Central America, and northern South America
		Castilla tunu Hemsl.	Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Belize
	Caucho rubber, Caucho Negro	Castilla ulei Warb.	Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia

References

[https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:40740-1 ''Castilla'' Cerv.] ''[[Plants of the World Online]]''. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
González, J.. "Explicación Etimológica de las Plantas de La Selva".
Loadman, John. (2005). "Tears of the Tree: The Story of Rubber –a Modern Marvel". Oxford University Press.
(2005). "Las moráceas de la región de Madidi, Bolivia". Ecología en Bolivia.
"Castilla elastica (PIER species info)".
Berg, C.C.. (1977). "Castilleae, a tribe of the Moraceae, renamed and redefined due to the exclusion of the type genus Olmedia from the Olmedieae". Acta Botanica Neerlandica.
"Castilla elastica (Panama Rubber Tree)". BioNET-EAFRINET.
Chavez Helm, Jasmine. "Tunu: A cloth of necessity, spirituality & resistance". The Critical Pulse SDU.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

moraceae moraceae-genera fiber-plants flora-of-the-neotropical-realm

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Castilla (plant) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report