Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Tricerma octogonum
Arrayancillo, rompe ollas, Maytenus, leatherleaf
Shrub or small tree, up to 8m tall, with alternate leaves and green flowers. The fruit is capsule green and covered by a red, fleshy aril (McMullen 1999).
Ground finches like to eat the fruit and it is very common on many of the islands (McMullen, 1999)
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Plantae
Phylum
Magnoliophyta
Class
Magnoliopsida (= Dicotyledoneae)
Order
Celastrales
Family
Celastraceae
Genus
Tricerma
Species
octogonum
Taxon category: Accepted
Syn.: Maytenus octogona (L'Hér.) DC.; Maytenus orbicularis (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Schult.) Loes. Basionym: Celastrus octogonus L'Hér. (Tropicos, 2017; GBIF, 2021).
Origin: Native
Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.
Distribution: The native range of this species is Galápagos, mainland Ecuador to Peru (POWO, 2023).
- Tropicos.org. (2017) Database of Missouri Botanical Garden. Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. 06 Oct 2017 <http://www.tropicos.org
- GBIF Secretariat (2021) GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei Accessed via https://www.gbif.org/species/5284517
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2022) Plants of the world online POWO (2022): Plants of the world online. Published on the Internet; Https://powo.science.kew.org/
- Biral, L. Simmons, M., Smidt, E., Tembrock, L., Bolson, M., Archer, R. & Lombardi, J. (2017) Systematics of New World Maytenus (Celastraceae) and a New Delimitation of the Genus Biral, L., Simmons, M., Smidt, E., Tembrock, L., Bolson, M., Archer, R. & Lombardi, J. (2017). Systematics of New World Maytenus (Celastraceae) and a New Delimitation of the Genus. Systematic Botany, 42(4), 1–14.
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Tricerma octogonum", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=20421. Accessed 7 June 2025.