BUMELIA

genus of about 25 species of woody trees and shrubs, within the sapodilla family (Sapotaceae), native to mainly warmer regions of North and South America. The plants typically have gummy or milky sap and extremely hard wood. The branches are usually thorny, the alternate leaves entire (smooth-edged). B. lanuginosa, variously known as chittamwood, shittamwood, gum elastic, and false buckthorn, is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental. It grows to about 15 m (50 feet) tall. The leaves are 3.7510 cm (1.54 inches) long, are dark lustrous green above and rusty beneath, and persist until late in the fall. The minute white blossoms grow in many-flowered clusters. The ellipsoid black fruit is about 1 cm (0.4 inch) long.