Comocladia is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae, placed within the order Sapindales. The genus was described by Patrick Browne in his 1756 work Hist. Jamaica, and today comprises roughly two dozen species (Wikipedia lists 26; GBIF's backbone records 37 descendant taxa, a figure that also captures synonyms and infraspecific names). Comocladia is native to the Americas, occurring across Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean, where its species grow as shrubs and small trees, commonly called maidenplums or guao.
Members of the genus are mostly unbranched shrubs or trees. The leaves are pinnately divided into opposite pairs of leaflets, usually with toothed or spiny margins, giving the foliage a holly-like appearance. Flowers are borne in panicles arising from the leaf axils; the species are polygamodioecious, producing separate male, female, and bisexual flowers. The small flowers have red sepals and red or purple corollas. The fruit is a fleshy drupe, yellow, red, or black-skinned, still wrapped in the persistent remnants of the flower's calyx.
A defining trait of the genus is its caustic sap: Comocladia species exude a resin that oxidizes and turns black on contact with air, similar to the sap of related Anacardiaceae genera such as Toxicodendron (poison ivy) and Metopium (poisonwood). Of the species assessed, a majority (17 of 26, per Wikipedia) have been documented to cause contact dermatitis in people who handle the foliage or bark, and several species carry common names reflecting this hazard, including maidenplum, guao, poison ash, and hogwood.
Notable species include Comocladia dodonaea (poison ash), C. dentata (guao), C. pinnatifolia, and C. velutina, a maidenplum endemic to Jamaica.
Distribution
Comocladia is native to the Americas, distributed across Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Ecology
Comocladia species exude a sap that oxidizes and turns black on air contact; this exudate is a known cause of contact dermatitis, documented in 17 of the genus's 26 species.
Taxonomy Notes
GBIF places Comocladia in family Anacardiaceae, order Sapindales, class Magnoliopsida, with authorship "P.Browne," first published in Patrick Browne's 1756 Civil and Natural History of Jamaica. GBIF's backbone lists 37 descendant taxa, a broader count than Wikipedia's 26 species since it also includes synonyms and infraspecific names.
