Flora of North America species comparison

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Terminalia catappa

tropical almond, West Indian or Indian or tropical almond
Habit Trees or shrubs to 20(–35) m; branches without thorns.
Leaves

persistent or tardily deciduous (then turning red and plants briefly leafless);

petioles 5–28 mm;

blade obovate, 6–35 × 2.6–16.5 cm, base narrowly cuneate to rounded or narrowly and obscurely cordate, apex acuminate or short-acuminate to obtuse or rounded, surfaces glabrate to moderately pubescent abaxially, midvein and secondary veins sparsely to densely pubescent, with nectar glands near base, glabrous or glabrate adaxially, midvein densely to sparsely pubescent, at least basally;

with pit-domatia at junction of secondary and tertiary veins with midvein, or junction of tertiary with secondary veins, or other vein junctions.
Spikes

5–25 cm, with bisexual flowers proximally, staminate flowers distally.
Flowers

5-merous, bisexual and staminate;

free portion of hypanthium 1–2 mm;

sepals 1–2.8 mm;

stamens 3–4.5 mm;

style 3.5–4 mm.
Drupes

green or red, slightly flattened, ovoid to ellipsoid, 35–70 × 20–50 mm, sparsely pubescent or glabrous;

with 2 well-developed ridges or wings;

hypanthium and calyx deciduous in age.

Terminalia catappa
Phenology Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Disturbed habitats, especially near coast.
Elevation 0–10 m. (0–0 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; Asia; Pacific Islands; n Australia [Introduced in North America; introduced also widely in Neotropics]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Terminalia catappa is commonly used as an ornamental tree in southern Florida, and has naturalized in Brevard, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Combretaceae > Terminalia
Sibling taxa
T. buceras, T. molinetii, T. muelleri
Name authority Linnaeus: Syst. Nat. ed. 12, 2: 674. (1767): Mant. Pl. 1: 128. (1767)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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