Terminalia buceras

Terminalia buceras (L.) C. Wright

Synonym: Bucida buceras

Common Names: Black Olive, Bully Wood, Inagua Oak

Family: Combretaceae

Habit: Terminalia buceras grows as a tree up to 20 meters in height with a trunk to 120 cm in diameter.  There is a slighty zig-zag branching system with the leaves clustered at the branch tips. The glabrous leaves are sessile, oblanceolate, to 10 cm in length, with an entire margin, acuminate or rounded leaf apex.

The complete, perfect, actinomorphic flowers are arranged in short spikes.  The calyx has 5 fused greenish sepals. There is no corolla.  There are 10 unfused stamens in 2 series.  The ovary is inferior with a single locule and seed becoming a brown, ridged, pubescent, drupe at maturity.

Habitat: Terminalia buceras grows in Dry Broadleaf Evergreen Formation- Forest/Shrubland (coppice).

Distribution: Terminalia buceras occurs throughout the Lucayan Archipelago, Florida, Central America and the entire Caribbean region.

Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage: Terminalia buceras is not used medicinally in the Lucayan Archipelago.  It is used in the horticultural trade.