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Calophyllum antillanum
Also called Santa Maria Tree, Calaba, Alexandrian Laurel, Santa Maria, Galba, Mast Wood
Calophyllum antillanum is an evergreen, medium-sized tropical tree in the Calophyllaceae family. It is also known as Antilles beauty leaf, Antilles calophyllum, Alexandrian laurel, Galba, Santa Maria, mast wood, and West Indian laurel.
Galba, its common name in Trinidad, may have been the origin of the stage name of Grenadian-born calypsonian, Sir Galba.
It is native to the Caribbean region, including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Hispaniola (both the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (in St. Croix). It has also been introduced to Florida and Hawaii in the United States. In Trinidad, it was used to make spinning tops for children. It has also been reported from Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Paraguay, etc.
It is prized for producing a very hard, durable wood. The leaves were once used as a diuretic in Grenada, but it is said in Dominica to be poisonous (Politi, 1996). It is considered an invasive weed species in some areas.
Calophyllum acidus · Calophyllum acutiputamen · Calophyllum apetalum · Alligatorbark · Calophyllum austroindicum · Calophyllum bicolor · Calophyllum bifurcatum · Calophyllum bracteatum · Santa Maria · Calophyllum brassii · Calophyllum calaba · Calophyllum caudatum
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Calophyllum antillanum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
