return to: checklist; keys; family Moraceae

Cecropia obtusifolia Bertol; k'o'och

Fast-growing trees; trunks smooth-surfaced, retaining indefinitely conspicuous ringed stipule scars and broadly triangular leaf scars, hollow (and often inhabited by ants); terminal buds covered by hood-like deciduous stipules; leaves deeply palmately lobed; inflorescence consisting of groups of four cylindrical flower masses attached to a common pedicel arising from the leaf axil; flowers and fruits minute, embedded in the cylindrical inflorescence axis.

Additional images:

• prop roots
• sappling tree (photographed southeast of Calotmul)
• leaves of sapling
• stem apex with young leaf, stipules, and inflorescence buds
• inflorescences and leaves
• inflorescences and leaves
• inflorescences, close-up
• bark, with stipule scars and leaf scars
• bark, with vestiges of stipule scars and leaf scars

According to Morton (1981): sap from the trunk is applied to warts; decoctions ofrom the leaves are used to treat fever, kidney disease, edema, obesity, diabetes, and also to induce sweating, menstrual flow, or to expedite childbirth.