Accession Count: 1
Common Name:
manihot
Family Name:
Euphorbiaceae
Botanical Name:
Manihot caudata
Sub Species:
Variety:
Forma:
Cultivar:
Characteristics:
Manihot caudata is a tree that grows to 10 m (30 ft) tall. It has a single bole with large girth but will produce multiple smaller trunks if grown in a climate where frost injury can cause die-back of stems. Young twigs are light red-brown, shiny, sparsely pubescent, while mature stems are glabrous, medium red-brown, and have a peeling brown-grey epidermis on the bark of mature limbs. The canopy is umbrella-like, spreading, with leaves that are alternately arranged. Young foliage is a brighter green color while older leaves have a dark green sparsely pubescent adaxial surface, and a waxy, reticulated, deeply grooved pattern on the abaxial surface. The lamina is narrowly peltate, palmately compound with 5 lobes – 3 major and 2 smaller lobes. Median lobes are obovate, entire and usually grow to 13 cm (5 in) long and 6 cm wide (3 in ) but occasionally grow as large as 25 cm (10 in) and 10 cm (4 in) wide. The leaf apex is abruptly caudate-acuminate and it terminates in a 2 cm (1 in) long bristle. Secondary, lobes are slightly smaller than median lobes and have a conspicuously assymmetrical, upward curvature at the apex. Petioles are up to 15 cm (6 in) long, glaucous, and finely grooved. Flowers are monoecious, and borne in axillary, usually many-branched, 15-25 cm (6-10 in) panicles, with both peduncles, pedicels and young buds having an ashy-blue glaucescence. Bracteoles have thick bristles, are 4 cm (2 in) long, while they and the bractlets are glaucous, and have smooth margins. Pistillate flowers are borne on the base of the inflorescence, attached by 2-4 cm (1-2 in) long, yellow-green pedicels. Tepals, which are 1 cm (1/2 in) long, greenish yellow, and glaucous on the outside, are cleft to the base into 5 oblong-lanceolate, tapered lobes. Fleshy, entire, staminodes are often present around the disc. Pistil are less than 1 cm (1/2 in) long, have a subglobose to slightly elongated ovary and a lobed to lobulate stigma. Staminate flowers have a 1.6 cm (~0.5 in) campanulate corolla, yellow-green tepals, and a sometimes glaucous covering, and oblong-obtuse lobes, which are not prominently reflexed at anthesis. Stamens appear in groups of 10, in 2 whorls of 5 each, each whorl is about 1 cm (0.4 in) long with pale yellow filaments and anthers. Fruit pedicels are 2-4 cm (~0.8-1.6 in) long, almost straight and develop into 2.25 cm (~1 in) ovate-ellipsoid dehiscence septicidal capsules. Seeds are oblong, flattened, conspicuously ribbed along the lateral edges and about 1.5 cm (<0.6 in) long.
Compound:
Man cau
Geographic Origin:
Mexican Tropics
Ecozone Origin:
Neotropic
Biome Origin:
Natural History:
Distribution It is a tree and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome. The native range of this species is northeast, northwest, southwest Mexico (1, 2). Specifically, it is found in Michoacan, Guanajuato, Zacatecas and Chihuahua on rocky slopes above the south shore of Lake Chapala, at about 1500 m (4500 ft) elevation. It also grows in the volcanic hills near Monte Leon, west of Lake Chapala and towards the north in Guanajuato and Zacatecas (1, 2).
Cultivation Notes:
Ethnobotany:
Height:
20 - 50 feet
Width:
16 - 20 feet
Growth Rate:
Slow Growing
Grow Season:
ForeSummer
Flower Season:
ForeSummer
Color:
White
Function:
Shade
Spread:
Non-spreading
Allergen:
Non-allergenic
Invasive:
Benign
Toxicity:
Hardy:
Tender
Water Use:
Moderate Water Use
Citations:
- World Flora Online Retrieved Aug. 7, 2024 https://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000235460
- Kew Botanical Garden Retrieved Aug. 7, 2024 https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:152376-2
