Ochroma pyramidale (Cav. ex Lam.) Urb., Malvaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  High risk, score: 8 (Go to the risk assessment).

Other Latin names:  Ochroma lagopus Sw.

Common name(s): [more details]

English: balsa, corkwood, down tree

Spanish: balsa

Habit:  tree

Description:  "Monoecious evergreen trees to 30 m or more tall.  Innovations densely stellate-hairy.  Twigs terete, rapidly glabrescent, 7-10 mm diameter, smooth but for petiole and stipule scars.  Leaves simple, spirally arranged towards the ends of the twigs; lamina broadly cordate, 10-26 x 14-30 cm, thin coriaceous ± entire or angularly lobed, apex obtuse to acuminate, base rounded to cordate, persistently densely stellate-tomentose below, glabrescent above, midrib and main veins slightly raised to sulcate above, strongly prominent below; venation 5-7-palmate at the base, midvein with 4-6 lateral veins; petiole ± terete, 2-4 mm diameter, 12-20 cm long, moderately stellate-tomentose even on mature leaves, ± dilated apically; stipules ± deltoid, to 10 mm long, densely tomentose, caducous.  Flowers solitary, lateral or axillary, on a stout ± fleshy pedicel 7 mm diameter and ± 10 cm long.  Calyx tubular to funnel-shaped, to 7 cm long, apically with 5 dilated lobes 1.5-2 cm long, appearing deeply carinate externally in dried material, externally stellate-tomentose, internally wooly, decurrent with pedicel and subtended by 3 caducous bracteoles that leave prominent scars.  Petals 5, contorted in bud, orange-yellow, clavate, 13 x 5 cm, externally stellate-tomentose, glabrescent basally, internally glabrous. Stamens connate into a glabrous tube 11 cm long, the distal half being slightly dilated and densely covered with sessile long wavy anthers.  Ovary sessile, glabrous, conical, ± 8 cm high, 5-locular; style 15 cm long with an apical twisted cylindrical stigmatic mass 3 cm long and 8 mm wide.  Capsule ± cylindrical, ellipsoid, slightly curved, longitudinally sulcate, loculicidal, 15 cm long and 8 mm wide; seeds black, embedded in a mass of woolly hairs"  (Henty, 1981; pp. 16-18).

Habitat/ecology:  In Papua New Guinea, "a lowland species that seeds freely and has established itself in areas near Lae and Madang.  However, its spread is likely to be restricted to areas where it is introduced as a plantation species"  (Henty, 1981; p. 18).  Moist uplands in the Galápagos Islands (McMullen, 1999; pp. 47-48). In Jamaica, locally common in disturbed sheltered moderately wet areas, 500-1500 (-3000) feet (Adams, 1972; p. 394).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Southern Mexico to Bolivia (Staples & Herbst, 2005; p. 196).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Isabela Group	Isabela Island	introduced cultivated	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Isabela Group	Volcán Sierra Negra, Isabela Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) San Cristóbal Group	San Cristóbal Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Santa Cruz Group	Santa Cruz Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Fiji Fiji Islands	Vanua Levu Island	introduced cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1981) (p. 412) Voucher cited: Howard 110
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Fatu Hiva Island	introduced	Meyer, Jean-Yves (2000) (p. 94) "Potential invader".
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Fatu Hiva Island	introduced cultivated	Florence, J. (2004) (p. 228)
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Fatu Hiva Island	introduced cultivated	Lorence, David H./Wagner, Warren L. (2008)
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Fatu Hiva Island	probably introduced invasive cultivated	Florence, J./Chevillotte, H./Ollier, C./Meyer, J.-Y. (2011) Vouchers cited: F. Hallé 2152 (PAP), J. Florence, D.H. Lorence & W.L. Wagner 9517 (PAP) Naturalisée
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Fatu Hiva Island		National Tropical Botanical Garden (U.S.A. Hawaii. Kalaheo.) (2003) (voucher ID: PTBG 39362) Taxon name on voucher: Ochroma pyramidale
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Fatu Hiva Island		National Tropical Botanical Garden (U.S.A. Hawaii. Kalaheo.) (2003) (voucher ID: PTBG 39545) Taxon name on voucher: Ochroma pyramidale
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Nuku Hiva (Nukahiva) Island	introduced cultivated	Florence, J. (2004) (p. 228)
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Nuku Hiva (Nukahiva) Island	introduced cultivated	Lorence, David H./Wagner, Warren L. (2008)
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Nuku Hiva (Nukahiva) Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Florence, J./Chevillotte, H./Ollier, C./Meyer, J.-Y. (2011) Naturalisée
French Polynesia Society Islands	Raiatea (Havai) Island	introduced cultivated	Welsh, S. L. (1998) (pp. 52-53)
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island	introduced	Meyer, Jean-Yves (2000) (p. 94) "Potential invader".
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island	introduced cultivated	Welsh, S. L. (1998) (pp. 52-53) Voucher cited: BRY 26346
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island	introduced cultivated	Florence, J. (2004) (p. 228)
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Florence, J./Chevillotte, H./Ollier, C./Meyer, J.-Y. (2011) Naturalisée
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Hawaiian Islands	cultivated	Neal, Marie C. (1965)
New Caledonia New Caledonia Archipelago	Île Grande Terre	introduced cultivated	MacKee, H. S. (1994) (p. 23) Vouchers cited: Blanchon 1640 (NOU), MacKee 30213
Palau Palau (main island group)	Babeldaob Island	introduced cultivated	Lorence, David H./Flynn, Tim (2010) (p. 33) "Cultivated, Ngerderar River at old Japanese Expl. Stn.".
Palau Palau (main island group)	Babeldaob Island		Bishop Museum (Honolulu) (1996) (voucher ID: BISH 650430) Taxon name on voucher: Ochroma pyramidale (Cav. ex Lam.) Urb.
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (eastern New Guinea Island)	Papua New Guinea (eastern New Guinea Island)	introduced invasive	Henty, E. E., ed. (1981) (pp. 16-18)
Solomon Islands Solomon Islands	Solomon Islands	introduced	Hancock, I. R./Henderson, C. P. (1988) (p. 94)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Colombia Colombia	Colombia (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Costa Rica Costa Rica	Costa Rica (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Ecuador (Mainland) Ecuador	Ecuador (Republic of) (continental)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
El Salvador El Salvador	El Salvador (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Guatemala Guatemala	Guatemala (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Honduras Honduras	Honduras (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Mexico Mexico	Mexico (United Mexican States)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Nicaragua Nicaragua	Nicaragua (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Panama Panama	Panama (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Perú Perú	Perú (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Singapore Singapore	Singapore (Republic of)	introduced cultivated	Chong, Kwek Yan/Tan, Hugh T. W./Corlett, Richard T. (2009) (p. 64) Cultivated only

Comments:  Escaped from botanical garden on Tahiti.

Additional information:
Information from the World Agroforestry Centre's AgroForestryTree Database.
Information from the USDA Tropical Tree Seed Manual (PDF format).

Additional online information about Ochroma pyramidale is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Ochroma pyramidale as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Ochroma pyramidale may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Adams, C. D. 1972. Flowering plants of Jamaica. University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. 848 pp.

Bishop Museum (Honolulu). 1996. Voucher specimen #BISH 650430 (Raulerson, L. LR 26705).

Charles Darwin Foundation. 2008. Database inventory of introduced plant species in the rural and urban zones of Galapagos. Charles Darwin Foundation, Galapagos, Ecuador.

Charles Darwin Research Station. 2005. CDRS Herbarium records.

Chong, Kwek Yan/Tan, Hugh T. W./Corlett, Richard T. 2009. A checklist of the total vascular plant flora of Singapore: native, naturalised and cultivated species. Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore. 273 pp.

Florence, J. 2004. Flore de la Polynésie française, Vol. 2. Paris. IRE Editions, Publications Scientifiques, Collection Faune et Flore Tropicales 41. 503 pp.

Florence, J./Chevillotte, H./Ollier, C./Meyer, J.-Y. 2011. Base de données botaniques Nadeaud de l'Herbier de la Polynésie Française (PAP). (online resource).

Hancock, I. R./Henderson, C. P. 1988. Flora of the Solomon Islands. Research Bulletin No. 7. Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Honiara. 203 pp.

Henty, E. E., ed. 1981. Handbooks of the flora of Papua New Guinea, vol. 2. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne. 276 pp.

Lorence, David H./Flynn, Tim. 2010. Checklist of the plants of Palau. Unpublished checklist. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Hawai‘i. 44 pp.

Lorence, David H./Wagner, Warren L. 2008. Flora of the Marquesas Islands. National Tropical Botanical Garden and the Smithsonian Institution. Online database.

MacKee, H. S. 1994. Catalogue des plantes introduites et cultivées en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 164 p.

McMullen, C. K. 1999. Flowering plants of the Galápagos. Comstock Pub. Assoc., Ithaca, N.Y. 370 p.

Meyer, Jean-Yves. 2000. Preliminary review of the invasive plants in the Pacific islands (SPREP Member Countries). In: Sherley, G. (tech. ed.). Invasive species in the Pacific: A technical review and draft regional strategy. South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, Samoa. 190 pp.

Neal, Marie C. 1965. In Gardens of Hawaii. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 50, Bishop Museum Press. 924 pp.

Smith, Albert C. 1981. Flora Vitiensis nova: a new flora of Fiji. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii. Volume 2. 810 pp.

Staples, George W./Herbst, Derral R. 2005. A tropical garden flora: plants cultivated in the Hawaiian Islands and other tropical places. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu. 908 pp.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2011. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

Welsh, S. L. 1998. Flora Societensis: A summary revision of the flowering plants of the Society Islands. E.P.S. Inc., Orem, Utah. 420 pp.

Wiggins, I. L./Porter, D. M. 1971. Flora of the Galapágos Islands. Stanford University Press. 998 pp.