Eugenia haematocarpa is a rare species of plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 in the Myrtaceae

Myrtaceae

The Myrtaceae or Myrtle family are a family of dicotyledon plants, placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, clove, guava, feijoa, allspice, and eucalyptus belong here. All species are woody, with essential oils, and flower parts in multiples of four or five...

 family. It is endemic to Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. It is federally listed as an endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 of the United States. Its common names include uvillo and Luquillo Mountain stopper.

Specimens of this tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 were first collected in 1939 in Naguabo

Nagüabo, Puerto Rico

Naguabo is a municipality in Puerto Rico located in the east coast of the island, north of Humacao; south of Río Grande and Ceiba; and east of Las Piedras. Naguabo is spread over 8 wards and Naguabo Pueblo...

. It is known from the Caribbean National Forest

El Yunque National Forest

El Yunque National Forest, formerly known as the Luquillo National Forest, and the Caribbean National Forest, is a forest located in northeastern Puerto Rico. It is the only tropical rain forest in the United States...

 and the Sierra de Cayey on the eastern side of the island of Puerto Rico.

It has been observed growing amongst Syzygium jambos, Prestoea montana, Tabebuia heterophylla, Ocotea leucoxylon, Inga laurina, and Alchornea latifolia in mountain forest habitat. The main cause of the tree's rarity is habitat destruction

Habitat destruction

Habitat destruction is the process in which natural habitat is rendered functionally unable to support the species present. In this process, the organisms that previously used the site are displaced or destroyed, reducing biodiversity. Habitat destruction by human activity mainly for the purpose of...

.

This is an evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 tree growing up to 6 meters tall with gray or whitish bark that strips away in plates. The leathery oval leaves are up to 18 centimeters long and are borne in pairs. Flowers occur in clusters on the trunk and each has four pink petals just over 2 centimeters long. The fruit is a dark red berry

Berry

The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....

between 2 and 3 centimeters in length.

External links

• World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. Eugenia haematocarpa. 2010 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded 22 March 2011.
• USDA Plants Profile