Clusia

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Clusia
Clusia major
Clusia major
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Clusiaceae
Subfamily: Clusioideae
Tribe: Clusieae
Genus: Clusia
L.
Species

See text

Clusia is the type genus of the family Clusiaceae. Comprising 140-150 species, it is native to tropical and subtropical America. Its species are shrubs, vines and small to medium-size trees up to 20 m tall, with evergreen foliage. Some species start life as epiphytes, then developing long roots that descend to the ground and eventually strangle and kill the host tree, in a manner similar to banyans.

The leaves are opposite, 5-20 cm long and 5-10 cm broad, with a leathery texture and an entire margin. The flowers are white to greenish-white, yellow or pink, with 4-9 petals. The fruit is a leathery greenish-brown valvate capsule which splits open to release several red, fleshy-coated seeds.

Selected species

[edit] Synonymy

The following genus names are synonyms of Clusia:

[edit] External links

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