Coccoloba uvifera (Koe-Koe-LOE-buh yoo-VIFF-er-uh) for most people is just a scientific name of a Seagrape. Yet for me, as a botanist, it’s a mystic phrase that begins a tale of being aided and hindered by the Atlantic Ocean, surviving Hexeris enhydris Grote and Podomys floridanus, and with the help of a friendly Heliconius charitonius, becomes a boon to many including those of the indigenous Floridian Timucua tribe.
Our tale starts with a large tree/ inland of the Floridian peninsula. Safer from hard ocean winds, it grows over 40 feet / 12 meters tall, with a green canopy extending over 30 feet / 9 meters wide in a rough circle. It’s October, and since the tree is female, it is filled with fruit. The individual dark blue and purple orbs are achenes, attached to the plant at one smaller specific point, and a drupe which means that the seed is encased in flesh like other grapes. With each branch easily containing over 50 fruit, and with the trees normally growing into a sympodium, a stubby trunk splitting off into many, many branches it’s a bountiful harvest.
That’s what the Timucua tribe is counting on. It’s part of their food and culture, so several youths hike to trees like this one, picking most of the fruit. Leaving some for the animals, they pack their haul and head back to their tribe towards the coast. Yet one seed falls out on the journey and is stepped on, smashing the seed into the ground. From this trauma, the seed begins to grow. While the seed can quickly grow it is at risk of mold and mildew killing the new life. Yet the salty winds from the ocean protect the new life just enough for roots to begin developing.
The outermost shell, the seed coat, breaks open and the embryo pushes out the first taproot and the cotyledons. Every seed is on a time crunch, and once the conditions are ripe for growth, the plant will quickly burn through all the nutrients it has stored in its endosperm. It needs to quickly push out a taproot, a central thicker root to stabilize the seed and to search for water, and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous. Even in these early days turning to weeks, the taproot will grow thin protrusions called root hairs, absorbing important water and nutrients. The taproot growing deeper and deeper will also grow rootlets from which even more root hairs will grow, in its ever desperate search for nutrients. As the weeks turn into months smaller roots will spring from the base of the plant, and these secondary or auxiliary roots will flare out the base of the young trunk. As the months turn to years this flaring out will give the base of the tree a buttressed look, an organic fortress holding up a great bounty. Yet, the salty winds from the Atlantic ocean will put pressure on the plant, and it will never grow as tall as where it came from, yet this plant is more fortunate than other seagrapes growing close to the ocean. The constant turbulent winds will force these plants to be stunted, growing to no more than a shrub.
Back to our plant, the germinating seed does not just grow downward but upward. From the innermost parts of the seed, it releases fake leaves called cotyledons attached to a new stem. As the plant is a eudicot, this seed will produce two leaves to absorb the sunlight it so desperately needs. As the days turn to weeks the green stem will grow taller, shooting off many spindly offshoots called twigs with many leaves. As the weeks turn to months the stem and the initial twigs will turn brown and grow in thickness, transforming the stem into a trunk and the initial twigs into branches. Now thicker and stronger, the branches can withstand the new weight of growing new twigs each with its own set of leaves.
Just as no man is an island so too is no plant a stem. Decorating the rising bronze-green protrusions after the initial pair of cotyledons is the first true leaves. From a chordate base, akin to a heart shape, the meristem tips of the new leaves will grow outwards and form all the other parts of the leaf. One of the first noticeable tissues will be the veins, with the major veins reaching the very edge of the leaf making the leaf pinnate. From the main veins, smaller veins will branch out also making the leaf reticulate. These veins will go all over the orbiculate or circular shape, with no point at the tip of the leaf or apice. As the plant ages, from weeks to months, the bronze-green leaves will turn leathery, dark green with striking red veins. Since each leaf can get from 8-12 inches long / 20-30 cm in length and width, it’s an impressive show. Couple that with the leaves showing up alternative, like a zig-zag pattern on a branch and it can be amazing to view pictures and in person.
By the end of the first year, our little seed starter has grown several feet, over a meter both above and below ground. Yet, it is of little interest to the surrounding wildlife. The humans won’t pay much attention, the animals won’t be fed by eating its meager leaves and branches, and the insects would prefer more mature older trees. This lack of attention from predators and pests will empower the plant to grow the trunk’s buttress thicker and stronger. The center of the trunk will become heartwood, a dead darker colored firm center stabilizing the plant, and surrounding the heartwood will be the sapwood. This living portion would contain active xylem and phloem, with the xylem carrying water and dissolved minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant, while the phloem carrying food like glucose and other plant-made chemicals from the leaves to the rest of the plants. The outermost layer of the stem would grow thin bark, with new bark being thicker and brown, aging into bumpy lighter grey and brown stripes. As the bark ages, the connection between the leaves and the twigs change, developing black sheathing stipules called ochrea that protect the twig and the leaf base. This black covering acts as protection, helping to keep the large leaves attached to the twig and acting as a physical barrier between an outside world filled with disease and predators. As the tree grows larger and larger, it will attract predators. Seagrape borer moths Hexeris enhydris Grote will lay eggs into the tiny twigs, and the larva will eat the twig and leaf dead. Beach mice such as Podomys floridanus will eat the tender parts of the new leaves and shoots. Humans, both tourists and those youths from the Timucua tribe won’t pay it much mind. With the ocean winds and it being only a year old, it won’t be until the second year when this plant has matured enough to grow flowers and from there grapes.
And as the summer passes to a Floridian winter free from snow and further into spring the time has come. With a successful first year of surviving and thriving, now it can brace itself for producing flowers. As the plants are dioecious, which means that there are male trees and female trees. All trees will grow buds from glabrous peduncles, which glabrous referring to smooth stems, and peduncles, which are the special stems connecting the flower with the 1-5 millimeter long stems. The calyx, which are those little green leaves that cover the buds before bloom, are fused with the corolla which is the area where the petals connect to the base. This fusion of green leaves and ivory petals means that the hypanthium is shallow. That space is where nectar is most commonly found, which means that each flower produces very little of that oh-so-sweet pollinator bribe yet it also means easy access. When blooming the flowers explode into five ivory lobed perianths, which are the colorful parts of the petals easy to see. Once open they stay open for most of the day and usually only close for the night or due to pollination. They have regular symmetry, which means that the petals are symmetrical to other petals when splitting down the middle.
It’s never just a single flower alone. It is a raceme, where these tiny flowers surround the entire diameter of the stalk, like a feather duster ready to either release pollen or take pollen into an ovary. These awaiting ivory sparkles open from trunk to tip, so the buds on the tips of the branches bloom out last. Yet despite all of this something is missing.
Upon the bloom, we can see that our tree is female, which means that it will reproduce female flower parts. This Gynoecium plant will have stamens that are infertile and shorter than the ovary, which is superior or above other plant parts and within the blossom instead of behind the petals. From the plant womb, three to four styles like thin tubes will extend upward trying to collect any pollen worthy of fertilizing the ovary. In the Floridian spring, there is no end to pollinators that will travel from plant to plant in search of that sweet bribe, nectar.
The state butterfly of Florida, a Zebra longwing Heliconius charitonius, is visiting a nearby male Androecium Seagrape. Close to the ocean wind torrents, the wind-battered seagrape is merely a shrub. Yet, this male plant like the female has stamens with anthers on top yet the anthers are filled with fertile pollen. The stamens are shaped similar to a thin tube-like style but it’s not hollow. It needs to support the anther which is a round white pea-shaped structure that contains the pollen, the male gametes. Each flower has around eight stamens and is three times larger than the tiny infertile ovary. That means that when the Zebra Longwing comes by looking for nectar, It will get some seagrape pollen on its legs. Once it drinks some nectar it will fly off to another plant filled with nectar. In this case, it flits and dashes about until it gets to our Seagrape plant. As the butterfly walks all over the flowers intentionally searching for nectar, it will also accidentally brush its legs against the tips of the style, and the pollen grains will latch onto it. From there, the ovary will become fertilized, filled with the genetic material from the new Androecium and our Gynoecium plant resulting in the start of the seagrapes that we know and love.
The petals wilt and falling off, then the sepals enclose, slowly over the spring and summer months becoming engorged with nutrients, darkening from light blonde green to a dark blue and purple. From August to October, everyone admires how the tree is dressed as the specks of purple can catch your eye even from a distance. The fruit attracts the attention of the wildlife, with rodents, deer, raccoons, birds, and insects of all kinds eating away. Some of these fruits will pass through animal digestion and with their funky fecial fertilizer they will grow into new plants. Insects like the seagrass borer moth will be on the lookout for this plant, ready to consume slowed only by the black ochrea from the tree. Now that same family of youths from the Timucua tribe, notice the tree and pick some of its dark blue, indigo, and purple fruit. One even decides to take a small cutting and perhaps grow it into a bonsai. This gardening practice of making miniature trees may make something unique with seagrapes. After all, buttressed trees often are bragged up as able to make some of the most interesting shapes in the bonsai community. As this teenager tries something new, there is an interesting lesson for us all.
While pests and problems will plague us from the start, those that can survive and grow onward can produce something good, perhaps so good that we can nourish others and make our piece of the world thankful we are around.
If you made it this far you have my thanks. This labor of love took me over 10 hours to research, edit and create for you so please tell me your favorite part in the comments below. If you want to read the script, feel free to visit my website in the description. If you want to financially support me, please visit MY SUBSCRIBESTAR, also in the description below. Until next time let’s cultivate greatness.
References
“Coccoloba UVIFERA.” Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve Content, www.levypreserve.org/Plant-Listings/Coccoloba-uvifera.
Daniels, Jaret C. “Common Name: Zebra Longwing.” Zebra Longwing, entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/bfly/zebra_longwing.htm.
“Florida Mouse.” Florida Fish And Wildlife Conservation Commission, myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/mammals/land/florida-mouse/#:~:text=The%20Florida%20mouse%20is%20a,sides%20and%20a%20white%20belly.
Flowering Plant Families, UH BOTANY, www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/polygon.htm.
Gilman, Edward F., and Dennis G. Watson. University of Flordia Environmental Horticulture, Forest Service, hort.ufl.edu/database/documents/pdf/tree_fact_sheets/cocuvia.pdf.
Harris, J. G., and M. W. Harris. “Plant identification terminology: an illustrated glossary.” (2001).
Howard, F. W. “Common Name: Seagrape Borer.” Seagrape Borer – Hexeris Enhydris Grote, entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/trees/moths/seagrape_borer.htm.
Linnaeus, (Linnaeus), and Craig C. Freeman. “Coccoloba UVIFERA.” FNA, dev.semanticfna.org/Coccoloba_uvifera.
Seiler, John, et al. “Virginia Tech Dendrology.” Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet, dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=382.
Such an incredible amount of detailed information and written in such an interesting way. Thank you for your efforts on this, very worthwhile! I liked your phrase, “…no plant is a stem” and your explanation of it. It was great to follow the progression of the plant’s growth, while having the technical terms provided to authenticate it! You offer an informative and entertaining perspective that gives this reader the desire to read more!