Madeu (Pohnpei cinnamon tree) Cinnamomum carolinense (tentative)

Photos taken in Kipar, Kitti, Pohnpei.

Date collected: 28, Oct. 2000

Where: Kipar, Kitti

By: Dali. W

1. Genus/species: Cinnamomum carolinense
2. family name: Lauraceae
3. English name: caroline cinnamum
4. Chuukese name: none
5. Kosraen name: none
6. Pohnpeian name: Madeu Yapese name: none
7. Growth form: tree growth
8. location: anywhere in the tropics; on land: terrestrial
9. growth environment: forest, cultivated areas, upland forest, and it grown where it is not too hot and not too cold
10. growth zone: tropical, savanna, and cultivated areas average
11. height: no more than 60 meters tall
12. stem: woody, bark is about one to one and one half inch thick
13. leaf arrangement: alternate
14. stipule: absent petioles: 3-4cm long
15. Leaf blade: parallel; 8cm wide and 15cm in length
16. inflorescence: none
17. floral bracts: absent
18. flower: white and as small as the flower of the Clinostigma ponapensis.
19. calyx: not available
20. corolla: white and is about 4cm in diameter
21. stamens: not available
22. ovary: not available
23. style: not available
24. fruit: green when unripe and it is round. When it ripen, the color is like the color of a very dark blood. It is like blood on a black skinned person
25. seed: there can be three or four brown seeds in one
26. fruit: shape: one fourth of a breadfruit if a Pohnpeian cut it.
27. anything else: it is a dicot therefore, I can conclude and say that it has more than three petals or more than three anthers but unfortunately, I have never seen one.
28. There is a season for the cinnamon tree (Madeu) to bloom.
29. cultural usage: Pohnpeians carve out the thick bark and put it in boiling water and when the liquid or the water turns pinkish red, they drink it as tea or coffee. This plant also has important medicinal uses but unfortunately, they are not to be shared this way (world wide).

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