Apocynaceae FAMILY Near Threatened
Aspidosperma megalocarpon
Aspidosperma megalocarpon
Edibility
0/5
Medicinal
2/5
Safety & Hazards
The freshly cut wood and sap of Aspidosperma species causes irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, with general malaise[1]. The sawdust, on contact with abraded skin, produces local burning and a vesicular eruption with general symptoms of muscular weakness and cramps, sweating, dryness of the mouth, and faintness[1]. Once the wood is thoroughly dry it loses its toxicity unless polishes or dyes in organic solvents are used on it[1]
Cultivation Details
HabitEvergreen Tree
Growth—
Not known
Propagation
Seed - Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-19. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Aspidosperma+megalocarpon>
Pollinators
Insects
References
- [1]BoDD (Botanical Dermatology Database) — http://bodd.cf.ac.uk/ ↩︎Brief notes on a very wide range of plants that have reports of causing harm to the skin.
- [2]Flora of Guatemala — Standley P.C. & J. A. Steyermark · 1946 - 1976 · http://www.archive.org/ ↩︎A superb reference, though somewhat dated. Gives lots of plant uses as well as information on plant habit and habitat. The entire flora (13 volumes) can now be downloaded from http://www.archive.org/
- [3]Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 38 — Missouri Botanical Garden · 1951 ↩︎An excellent botanical publication, available for download from the Internet. This volume contains part of the Flora of Panama and a revision of the genus Aspidosperma, amongst other things.
- [4]IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — http://www.iucnredlist.org/ ↩︎A list of plants under threat and facing possible extinction, usually with brief details of the threats and information on habitat.
- [5]Flora of the Lancetilla Valley, Honduras. — Standley P.C. · Field Museum of Natural History; Chicago. · 1931 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org ↩︎Rather short on details at times, which is not surprising since so little information was available at the time. Still a useful flora. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
- [6]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
- [7]A Manual of the Timbers of the World — Howard A.L. · MacMillan and Co.; London. · 1934 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org ↩︎An excellent and comprehensive book on timbers. Rather dated, but still a main source of information for many of the less known woods. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
- [8]Tropix 7 — CIRAD · http://tropix.cirad.fr/en ↩︎An on-line guide to the timbers of 245 species of trees.