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Floristic Inventory of the Florida Keys Database Online

Amyris balsamifera L.
Balsam torchwood

Amyris balsamifera
Copyright by: George D. Gann
cultivated plant at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
March 2013

Family: Rutaceae

Group: Dicot

Substrate: Terrestrial

Habit: Tree

Perennation: Perennial

Native Range: South Florida, the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, Central America and northwestern South America.

NatureServe Global Status: Apparently Secure

Florida Natural Areas Inventory State Status: Presumed Extirpated or Extinct

IRC SOUTH FLORIDA Status: Presumed Extirpated or Extinct in the Wild

Map of select IRC data for peninsular Florida

SOUTH FLORIDA Occurrence: Present

SOUTH FLORIDA Native Status: Native

South Florida History and Distribution: Ranked as presumed extirpated in Rare Plants of South Florida (Gann et al. 2002, pp 57-58), based on a collection in Miami by Abram P. Garber in 1877 and possibly a single tree in Matheson Hammock Park discovered in 1966, which was destroyed in the late 1970s or early 1980s. However, seeds were collected prior to the tree’s destruction and germplasm is maintained at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

SOUTH FLORIDA Cultivated Status: Cultivated

Comments: For more images and a description of plants in Cuba, visit the Cybertruffle website. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the Exploring Florida website.

Distinguished from the common A. elemifera in having: leaflets often 5 and usually more than 5 cm long (versus usually 3 and less than 5 cm long); inflorescence downy hairy (versus glabrous); ovary hairy, stalked (versus glabrous, sessile); and fruit elongated, 9-14 mm long (versus rounded, 5-8 mm long) (from Tomlinson 1980).

FLORIDA KEYS Occurrence: Recorded as Present in Error

Map of select IRC data for the Florida Keys

Florida Keys History and Distribution: Not reported for the Florida Keys by John Kunkel Small in 1913. Reported for the Monroe County Keys by the Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants, but we believe that a FLAS specimen of A. elemifera has been misdetermined (Gann et al., 2002).

Other data on Amyris balsamifera available from :








All Images:

Amyris balsamifera
Copyright by: George D. Gann
cultivated plant at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
March 2013

Amyris balsamifera
Copyright by: George D. Gann
cultivated plant at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
March 2013

Amyris balsamifera
Copyright by: George D. Gann
cultivated plant at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
March 2013