American Shohin

General Information

The black olive (Bucida buceras L.) is native to the Yucatan peninsula and along the coast of Mexico, Central America and northern South America to the Guianas; the Bahamas, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles as far as Guadeloupe. Salt tolerant, the black olive grows in coastal swamps, wet inland woods, and on river banks, and tolerates dry limestone areas of South Florida. The tree is sturdily erect with tiered, whorled, often thorny branches, at first horizontal and later drooping. It is prone to producing suckers at the base. The elongated main branches bend downwards, making the tree top-heavy. Other drawbacks include the tree’s need for regular pruning and its susceptibility to several pests and over two dozen diseases. The natural range of this tree is from southern Mexico and Yucatan through Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Belize, and coasts of Colombia and Venezuela (including Margarita) and the Guianas to Panama. It is “doubtfully native” but cultivated in Barbados, ranges northward from Guadeloupe, to Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas (New Providence, Andros, Inagua) and the Caicos Islands. In Jamaica, the black olive grows in salt-marshes on the seacoast, commonly along “lagoons, swamp and river margins”. It occurs in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on “plains, hillsides, river banks and in coastal woods”. It is usually associated with mangroves in the coastal swamps of Belize. On the Atlantic coast of Guatemala, it flourishes along the beaches. There are solid stands of the black olive in parts of southern Mexico on clay (originally calcareous) soils that are periodically inundated. It was seen on Elliott’s Key in early days and “the range was originally thought to have included the Florida Keys, but it is now believed that it did not occur on the Keys before colonization”.