''Ehretia anacua'' is medium-sized tree found in eastern Mexico and southern Texas in the United States. It is a member of the borage family, Boraginaceae. One of its common names, anacua, is derived from the Mexican Spanish word ''anacahuite'', as is that of the related '' Cordia boissieri'', the ''anacahuita''. That word in turn is derived from the

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

words '' āmatl'', meaning "paper," and ''cuahuitl'', meaning "tree," possibly referring to the bark. It is also known as knockaway, a corruption of anacua, and sandpaper tree. Alternate spellings are anaqua and anachua.

Description

Anacua reaches a height of and a diameter of , often producing suckers or multiple trunks. The

bark Bark may refer to: * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, ...

is reddish-brown to gray with narrow furrows and peeling scales. The dark green

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are and wide and elliptical or ovate. Their upper surfaces are remarkably rough, feeling like low-grade sandpaper. Anacua is a partial evergreen, replacing some of the leaves in early spring. Abundant white flowers form in

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

s or

cymes An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed on ...

in length at the ends of twigs, making trees appear to be covered in snow when in bloom from spring to summer. Flowers are wide and have 5

corolla Corolla may refer to: *Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit *Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name * Corolla (headgear), an ancient headdress in the form of a circlet or crown * ''Corolla'' (gastropod), a genus of moll ...

lobes. The fruits are spherical

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

s 8 mm in diameter and yellowish-orange. The drupes contain two stones, each with two seeds. In addition to being edible by humans, the drupes are eaten by

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s and birds such as the

clay-colored thrush The clay-colored thrush (''Turdus grayi'') is a common Middle American bird of the thrush family (Turdidae). It is the national bird of Costa Rica, where it is well known as the ''yigüirro'' (Spanish: ). Other common names include clay-colored ...

. The lifespan of an Anacua is at least 50 years.

Habitat

Anacua is found on dry hillsides as a

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

, but reaches tree size in the moist soils of riparian zones and floodplains. It can be found at elevations from sea level to .

Ecology

The leaves of ''E. anacua'' are the sole food source of the Texas tortoise beetle (''

Coptocycla ''Coptocycla'' is a tortoise beetle genus in the subfamily Cassidinae. Species These 58 species belong to the genus ''Coptocycla'': * '' Coptocycla adamantina'' (Germar, 1824) * '' Coptocycla aerata'' (Boheman, 1855) * '' Coptocycla apicata'' S ...

texana'').

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3010248 anacua Trees of Mexico Trees of the South-Central United States Trees of Chiapas Trees of Coahuila Trees of Hidalgo (state) Trees of Nuevo León Trees of Querétaro Trees of San Luis Potosí Trees of Tamaulipas Trees of Veracruz Flora of Texas Plants described in 1924