Breadnut

Alicastrum brownei Kuntze

Trees , to 30 m. Branchlets gray-brown, glabrous. Leaves: stipules clasping, ca. 4 mm; petiole 0.5-0.7 cm. Leaf blade 5-15 × 2-6 cm, base broadly obtuse to rounded, apex obtuse to short-acuminate, nearly cuspidate; surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrous; veins 12-18 pairs. Inflorescences nearly globose, 3-6 mm diam.; peduncle slender, equal to or shorter than head. Staminate flowers: anther ca. 1 mm diam. Pistillate flowers: style 1.5-8.5 mm; stigmas 0.2-8 mm, unequal. Syncarps yellow, 1.5-2 cm diam.

Flowering all year. Disturbed areas; 0-50 m; introduced; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies (Cuba and Jamaica); Central America; n South America.

Brosimum alicastrum , native to tropical America, is cultivated in tropical Florida as an ornamental; it rarely escapes.