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Curatella americana
Dilleniaceae FAMILY

Curatella americana

Curatella americana

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The fruits have glandular hairs that contain allergic principles. Handling the fruits has been known to cause severe skin irritations in some people[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitTree
GrowthSlow

Grows best in a sunny position[1]. Succeeds in fairly dry soils[1]. Established plants are drought tolerant[1]. A slow-growing tree[1].

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in a sunny position in a nursery seedbed. A low germination rate can usually be expected, with the seed sprouting within 10 - 20 days[1]. When the seedlings are 5 - 7cm tall, pot them up into individual containers[1]. The seedlings grow slowly[1]. The seed has a short viability of less than 4 months in storage[1]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Curatella+americana>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]Brazilian Trees. Volume 1. 4th Edition. — Lorenzi. H. · Instituto Plantarum De Estudos Da Flora; Brazil. · 2002 · ISBN 85-86714-17-8 ↩︎Information on 350 species of Brazilian trees. Stunning photographs of each species, brief details on the plant, its uses and how to grow it from seed. A superb work, with the minor irritation that the translation from Portuguese is not of the best.
  2. [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. [3]A Century of Trees of Panama. — Pittier H. Mell C.D. · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org ↩︎A work that was very difficult to get published according to the correspondence contained at the start!. A treatment of 100 different species with descriptions and details of uses. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
  4. [4]Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants — http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 ↩︎Terse details of a huge range of useful plants.
  5. [5]Medicinal Plants of the Guianas — DeFilipps, R. A.; Maina, S. L.; & Crepin, J. · Smithsonian Museum · http://botany.si.edu/bdg/medicinal/index.html ↩︎A down-loadable PDF document of a book in pre-publication awaiting illustration. An excellent, if rather terse, guide to the traditional medicinal uses of the plants of the region
  6. [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.