Clethra mexicana A. DC.

(Celastraceae)

Masís, A., Espinoza, R., Guadamuz, A., Perez, D. and Chavarría, F. 1998. Clethra mexicana (Clethraceae) Species Page, June 12, 1998. Species Home Pages, Area de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica. http://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr

I. Identification:

Tree from 8-15 m tall.

Flower:

The inflorescence is a raceme of yellowish-white flowers on the ends of the branches.

View of the flowers and the inflorescence

 

 

 

Fruit:

The fruits are small capsules 2-3 mm long (Quesada et al, 1997).

Immature fruits

 

Leaves:

Simple alternate, lanceolate form and entire margins. Clustered.

Upper surface of the leaf 

 

Clustered leaves

 

Leaf arrangement

Bark and wood:

Grey.

Bark
 

Whole Plant Architecture:

View of the tree

 

Similar species:

Verification:

II.Geographic distribution:

International:

In Costa Rica:

In the Area de Conservación Guanacaste:

In the Pacific and Atlantic watersheds of the Guanacaste mountain range, in the foothills of the volcanos 500-1200 msnm.

 Map of macro-habitats of the ACG

III. Natural History:

IV. How to find:

In the pastures of the Pitilla station.

Acknowledgements.

This project was carried out by the Area de Conservación Guanacaste/CR, with help from INBio/CR, ICBG from the Foggarty center, NIH/USA and NSF/USA. We would especially like to thank Calixto Moraga for the taxonomic identification of this species.

Thanks to Kate Beattie and Alexandra Kern for helping with the image management and the translation of this species page.

Literature cited.

Quesada, J.F., Jiménez, Q., Zamora, N., Aguilar, R., Gonzalez, J. 1997. Arboles de la Península de Osa.

Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Heredia.