Home / Browse / Byrsonima / Maricao Cimun

iNaturalist — CC, credited & licensed per image

Malpighiaceae family

Maricao Cimun Byrsonima crassifolia

Native

Maricao Cimun is a perennial tree native to Puerto Rico. It grows to 33 ft.

More about this plant

Byrsonima crassifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Malpighiaceae, native to tropical America. Common names used in English include nance, maricao cimun, craboo, and golden spoon. In Jamaica it is called hogberry. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY

Size & form

Sources · Size & form

TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage

Tallo — Jucker et al. 2025 (CC BY 4.0) — wild crown width — Mature width

USDA PLANTS — Lifespan

Height: 33 ft
Mature width: ≈ 30 ft wide wild/forest-grown — open-grown specimens spread wider
Lifespan: Perennial
Foliage: Evergreen broadleaf

In the garden

Sub-canopy / understory layer — Sits in the understory of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →

derived roles

Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →

❧ Caterpillar hosts Documented caterpillar host

Recorded feeding on Byrsonima in North America, including:

Ephyriades brunneus · skipper butterfly

Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).

✦ Bees 75 bee visitors

75 native & managed bee species are documented visiting Maricao Cimun — the 12 most-recorded:

Paratetrapedia calcarata

Scaptotrigona mexicana

+ 6 more bees →

Centris aethyctera

Florilegus condignus Centris adani

Epicharis lunulata

Melissodes tepaneca · Tepanec Long-Horned Bee

Nannotrigona perilampoides

Visitor records (observations, not exhaustive) from Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI →

Wildlife & visitors 3 birds · 3 mammals

Open records of who else uses Maricao Cimun — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 3 birds and 3 mammals species (fruit, seed, browse):

Manacus vitellinus · Golden-Collared Manakin Pipra mentalis · Red-Capped Manakin

Ortalis cinereiceps · Gray-Headed Chachalaca

Saimiri sciureus · Common Squirrel Monkey

Brachyteles arachnoides · Muriqui

Brachyteles hypoxanthus · Northern Muriqui

Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).

Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.

How we know this (2) Methods & honest limits

Leaf build Direct fact

We read each species’ measured specific leaf area (leaf area per unit dry weight) from the Global Spectrum dataset and band it: thin & fast (high SLA), medium, or thick & tough (low SLA). The global median is about 10 mm²/mg.

Honest limits: A species-mean from pooled measurements — individual plants vary with light and site. A broad strategy signal, not a precise per-plant figure.

Díaz, S. et al. (2022) The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset. Scientific Data 9:755.

Photosynthesis Direct fact

A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.

Kattge, J. et al. TRY plant trait database — Categorical Traits Dataset (2012).

Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →

Sources for this entry (21) Open & cited

[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)

[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status

[06] Wetland indicator — USACE National Wetland Plant List (2022)

[07] Photos — iNaturalist — CC, credited per image

[08] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

[09] Ecological value — GloBI

[10] Foliage — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[11] Height — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[12] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[13] Photosynthetic pathway — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[14] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)

[15] Mature width — Tallo — Jucker et al. 2025 (CC BY 4.0) — wild crown width

[16] Mycorrhiza — FungalRoot v2.0 · Meng et al. 2024 (Dryad, CC0)

[17] Human uses — Dr. Duke's Phytochemical & Ethnobotanical Databases (USDA, CC0)

[18] Bee visitors — Noori et al. 2026 (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0) · via GloBI

[19] Flower-visitor value (derived) — Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI

[20] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)

[21] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county

Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.

Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

Citation

Loading…

BibTeX

Loading…

Enable JavaScript for a ready-to-copy citation with today’s access date, or cite this page’s URL with the date you viewed it.

Ecological value open data

3 / 5 Keystone

Keystone (host) value — caterpillar, specialist-bee & monarch hosting. A low number means “not a keystone host,” not “low value”: generalist flower-visitor value is shown separately below and in Bees & wildlife.

Caterpillar host 3

Flower-visitor value derived 5

Recorded flower-visitor breadth — observations, not a nectar measurement. open data

Deep dive

Caterpillar host · 3/5 — native butterfly & moth caterpillars that feed on this genus — the base of the food web (more caterpillars → more songbirds). Genus-level keystone count from Warren II 2026 (CC0; Tallamy host-use records), gap-filled by our GloBI derivation.

Counts are genus-level and banded 0–5. Full rubric →

Host / keystone value from open interaction data. How this is scored →

📍 In your area live

Native to the U.S.

Recorded in 1 state.

Open occurrence records place it in 1 counties across 1 states · GBIF (CC0/CC-BY)

Native — Puerto Rico

Recorded in 1 states/territories

Conservation

Invasive? No

Wetland indicator FACU

Toxicity & pet safety

Check the ASPCA pet database →

Educational, not veterinary advice. If you suspect your pet ate this plant, contact a vet or pet poison-control line.

Documented human uses Dr. Duke's

30 use-records

Historically recorded for

DiarrheaFeverLiqueurAstringentColdPiscicideSnake BiteAlexitericAtonyColitisDentureDiureticFungusGastritisIntestineLeg Tumor +4 more

A historical record of how this plant has been used — not medical or dietary advice, and not a claim that it is effective or safe. Many plants are toxic; never ingest or treat with a wild plant without expert guidance and a confirmed identification. Dr. Duke's →

Functional traits TRY · Dryad

Wood density medium

0.61 g/cm³

moderate-density wood

Seed mass small

2 mg

small seed — straightforward to sow

Leaf nitrogen average

15.8 mg/g

leaf nitrogen — a rough guide to compost/mulch value

Leaf build medium

Medium

mid-range leaf build (measured leaf area per weight 11.4 mm²/mg)

Leaf size medium

Medium

mid-sized leaves (measured leaf area ~30 cm²)

Mycorrhiza obligate

Arbuscular (AM)

partners with arbuscular fungi — the commonest symbiosis; helps reach phosphorus & water, aiding drought resilience

Deep dive — what these mean

Wood density 0.61 g/cm³ — how heavy the wood is for its size. Denser wood = hotter, longer-burning firewood and tougher poles; lighter wood rots fast (quick mulch).

Seed mass 2 mg — average weight of one seed. Bigger seeds are easier to hand-collect & direct-sow; dust-fine seeds need surface-sowing.

Leaf nitrogen 15.8 mg/g — measured leaf N. Higher = richer prunings for compost/mulch (a measured stand-in for "dynamic accumulator" claims).

Leaf build — how thick & tough the leaves are. Thin, lightweight leaves grow fast and crave light; thick, tough leaves last longer and shrug off shade, drought & grazing. (measured leaf area per dry weight, 11.4 mm²/mg)

Photosynthesis — the standard “C3” pathway most plants use, most active in cooler, moister, moderate-light conditions. (pathway C3)

Mycorrhiza AM — the root–fungus partnership it forms (AM = most plants; ECM = most forest trees; ERM = heaths; NM = none). Trades sugars for water & nutrients via shared soil networks.

Measured traits from TRY + Werner et al. (N-fix), Fan et al. (roots) & FungalRoot — general guidance, not species-specific prescriptions.

More modules coming

Maricao Cimun Byrsonima crassifolia

Growing & care

Wildlife & pollinators

Related plants