Guaiacum officinale L.

lignum-vitae 
roughbark lignum-vitae 
pockholz
ironwood
guaiacwood
gaiacwood


USDA GUOF


Genus and species meaning: a local name / Latin "officina" (workshop) for its use in producing medicines.

FL


Leaf: Opposite, pinnately compound, evergreen and leathery, to 4 inches long, with 6 to 8 pairs of oval to round sessile leaflets, yellow-green to dark green above and below.
Flower: Attractive, 1/2 inch across, purple-blue eventually fading to white, 5 broad petals, occur in small clusters from leaf axils, appearing in spring to early summer.
Fruit: A 5-parted yellow rounded 1/2 tp 3/4-inch capsule that opens to reveal shiny red seeds.
Twig: Slender, gray-brown with numerous short, knotty shoots.
Bark: Initially gray-brown and smooth, becoming darker and rough with age.
Form: A dense, multi-branched, crooked limbed shrub or small tree up to 30 feet tall with a spreading and dense crown. 



Site: Found near the coast throughout the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America.

Tidbits: The common name lignum vitae translates as wood of life.  The wood of this genus has been used medicinally.  Famously the most dense wood in the world, it is heavy, hard, and resistant to heat and rot.  Merlin's magical wand was supposedly made of lignum vitae.  Because of over-harvesting, it has been listed as an endangered species.


Status code 1

1 0 3 0 2 2




opposite
nut capsule fleshy dryberry
blue
broadleaf
NULL
pinnately
unlobed
entire
orbicular ovate
1
thin thick
fuzzless pubescense straight zigzag
NULL
narrow broad
1 3 5 
scaly valvate fuzzy naked short tall
unarmed
NULL
NULL
shrub small tree
arid dry mesic