English: Sea torchwood; Smooth torchwood; Candlewood; Sea amyris; Cuabilla.
French: Bois chandelle.
Name: amyron in Greek means "intensely scented", elemifera in Greek means "resin bearing".
Region: Florida, Caribbean, Central America, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, northern South America.
Habitat: tolerates full sun to light shade; along the edges of hammocks; tolerates many soil types, soil over rock, coastal sand; well-drained sites.
Content: caryophyllene, cadinene, cadinol; taxaline, an oxazole with antibiotic activity against Mycobacterium; elemic acids, liquid sesquiterpenes, triterpenes as α- and β-amyrin.
Use: wood for fences, fuel, torches, firewood; wood is highly flammable; honey production; medicinal; resin in lacquers, varnishes, perfumes, medicines, cosmetics, soaps, incense.
BotanyTree; 4 to 12 metres tall; young plants linger in the understory until gaps allow further growth.
Root: weak taproot; lateral roots are stiff and strong.
Stem: bark smooth, gray, matures into a rough and furrowed surface with plates; wood is close-grained; vertical branching habit; twigs yellow-gray, turn gray with age; wood fine-grained, fragrant, resistant to dry wood termites; wood exudes elemi, a type of balsam (oleoresin).
Leaves: hanging, fragrant; opposite or sub-opposite; petiole 3 cm compound, 5 to 5 oval or lance-shaped leaflets.
Flowers: tiny, fragrant; white; 3 merous.
Fruit: fragrant, globose drupe; black; with a single brown seed.
Dispersion: by birds.