Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Malvales > Malvaceae > Thespesia > Thespesia populnea

Thespesia populnea (Portia tree; portiatree; seaside mahoe)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Thespesia populnea, commonly known as the Portia tree /ˈpɔərʃⁱə/, is species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is a small tree or arborescent shrub that has a pantropical distribution, found on coasts around the world. However, the Portia tree is probably native only to the Old World, and may have originated in India. Its name is different in different languages in India. Nowadays, its wood is mainly used in making furniture because of its good ability to undergo carving. The wood from the tree was used by early Tamil people to make instruments in ancient Tamilakam. It is possibly indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands and elsewhere in the Pacific, but may have been spread by early Polynesians for its useful wood and bast fibres. The Portia tree reaches a height of 6–10 m
View Wikipedia Record: Thespesia populnea

Attributes

Bloom Period [1]  Spring
Drought Tolerance [1]  High
Fire Tolerance [1]  Medium
Frost Free Days [1]  1 year
Fruit/Seed Abundance [1]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [1]  Spring
Fruit/Seed End [1]  Summer
Growth Form [1]  Single Stem
Growth Period [1]  Year Round
Growth Rate [1]  Rapid
Leaf Type [2]  Evergreen
Lifespan [1]  Perennial
Propagation [1]  Bare Root, Container, Seed
Root Depth [1]  4.002 feet (122 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [1]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [1]  Medium
Seeds Per [1]  2400 / lb (5291 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [1]  Erect
Specific Gravity [3]  0.47
Structure [2]  Tree
Vegetative Spread Rate [1]  None
Flower Color [1]  Yellow
Foliage Color [1]  Green
Fruit Color [1]  Brown
Flower Conspicuous [1]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [1]  Yes
Height [1]  30 feet (9.1 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 10 Low Temperature: 30 F° (-1.1 C°) → 40 F° (4.4 C°)
Light Preference [1]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [1]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [1]  Intermediate
Water Use [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [1]  Dense
Screening - Winter [1]  Dense

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Ciénaga de Zapata National Park 1606900 Cuba  
Everglades and Dry Tortugas Biosphere Reserve   Florida, United States  
Palo Verde National Park II 46190 Costa Rica  

Predators

Providers

Pollinated by 
Apis mellifera (honey bee)[9]
Phelsuma ornata (ornate day gecko)[9]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 2Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 3Jérôme Chave, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Timothy R. Baker, Tomás A. Easdale, Hans ter Steege, Campbell O. Webb, 2006. Regional and phylogenetic variation of wood density across 2,456 neotropical tree species. Ecological Applications 16(6), 2356 - 2367
♦ 4Plant Dispersal by the Aldabran Giant Tortoise, Geochelone gigantea (Schweigger), S.H. Hnatiuk, Oecologia (Berl.) 36, 345-350 (1978)
♦ 5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 6Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 7Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 8del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0