Alchornea glandulosa is a tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of the Acalyphoideae

Acalyphoideae

The Acalyphoideae is a subfamily belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae....

 native to South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, growing for example in southern Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 from Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...

 to Rio Grande do Sul

Rio Grande do Sul

Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...

. It is locally known as tamanqueiro, tapiá or amor seco. This gnarled tree grows preferentially in riparian forest

Riparian forest

A riparian forest is a forested area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir. -Etymology:...

, where it a common pioneer species

Pioneer species

Pioneer species are species which colonize previously uncolonized land, usually leading to ecological succession. They are the first organisms to start the chain of events leading to a livable biosphere or ecosystem...

 growing to a height of 10–20 m. It is essentially evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

, though in the hot austral summer months there is a more pronounced changeover of leaves, and branches are denuded to some extent.

The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is about 8.7 mm long by 5.9 mm wide on average, and contains one round seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

 measuring about 4.45 mm in diameter; very rarely a second seed develops. This sticks out of an aril

Aril

An aril is any specialized outgrowth from the funiculus that covers or is attached to the seed. It is sometimes applied to any appendage or thickening of the seed coat in flowering plants, such as the edible parts of the mangosteen and pomegranate fruit, the mace of the nutmeg seed, or the...

 at the fruit's tip; when ripe, the seedcoat turns bright red and the fruit somewhat resembles that of a yew

Taxus

Taxus is a genus of yews, small coniferous trees or shrubs in the yew family Taxaceae. They are relatively slow-growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of 1-40 m, with trunk diameters of up to 4 m...

 with a larger and more prominent seed. Fruit ripen in the summer months, roughly between September/October and December/January in S Brazil, and as the trees bear less leaves at that time than otherwise, the bright red fruit are easily spotted.

This tree is often cut down for timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

, but it is also useful as a honey plant. Also, its leaves contain compounds of medical interest. In folk medicine

Folk medicine

-Description:Refers to healing practices and ideas of body physiology and health preservation known to a limited segment of the population in a culture, transmitted informally as general knowledge, and practiced or applied by anyone in the culture having prior experience.All cultures and societies...

, Alchornea

Alchornea

Alchornea is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae. It comprises 70 tropical species.-Synonyms:*Bleekeria Miq.*Bossera Leandri*Caelebogyne J.Sm.*Cladodes Lour.*Hermesia Humb. & Bonpl....

species are used to treat assorted skin diseases, diarrhea

Diarrhea

Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...

, inflammation

Inflammation

Inflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...

s, leprosy

Leprosy

Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...

 and rheuma. Scientific studies have confirmed most of these effects, and also found extracts of certain species to kill off trypanosoma

Trypanosoma

Trypanosoma is a genus of kinetoplastids , a monophyletic group of unicellular parasitic flagellate protozoa. The name is derived from the Greek trypano and soma because of their corkscrew-like motion. All trypanosomes are heteroxenous and are transmitted via a vector...

, some bacteria

Bacteria

Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

 and fungi, and cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 cells; the latter properties have also been tested in A. glandulosa. Compounds of interest in A. glandulosa include the phytosterol

Phytosterol

Phytosterols, which encompass plant sterols and stanols, are steroid compounds similar to cholesterol which occur in plants and vary only in carbon side chains and/or presence or absence of a double bond. Stanols are saturated sterols, having no double bonds in the sterol ring structure. More than...

s β-sitosterol and stigmasterol

Stigmasterol

Stigmasterol is one of a group of plant sterols, or phytosterols, that include beta-sitosterol, campesterol, ergosterol , brassicasterol, delta-7-stigmasterol and delta-7-avenasterol, that are chemically similar to animal cholesterol...

, the terpenoid

Terpenoid

The terpenoids , sometimes called isoprenoids, are a large and diverse class of naturally occurring organic chemicals similar to terpenes, derived from five-carbon isoprene units assembled and modified in thousands of ways. Most are multicyclic structures that differ from one another not only in...

 loliolide, the guanidine

Guanidine

Guanidine is a crystalline compound of strong alkalinity formed by the oxidation of guanine. It is used in the manufacture of plastics and explosives. It is found in urine as a normal product of protein metabolism. The molecule was first synthesized in 1861 by the oxidative degradation of an...

 alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

 N-1,N-2,N-3-triisopentenylguanidine, and the phenolic compound corilagin

Corilagin

Corilagin is a gallotannin. It can be found in Alchornea glandulosa....

.

Given the fruit's attractive color and the conspicuous display at the branch-tips, this tree appears to be distributed by bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s which eat the fruit and spread the seeds. Perching birds, namely tanager

Tanager

The tanagers comprise the bird family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has an American distribution.There were traditionally about 240 species of tanagers, but the taxonomic treatment of this family's members is currently in a state of flux...

s (Thraupidae), thrush

Thrush (bird)

The thrushes, family Turdidae, are a group of passerine birds that occur worldwide.-Characteristics:Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground or eat small fruit. The smallest thrush may be the Forest Rock-thrush, at and...

es (Turdidae) and tyrant flycatcher

Tyrant flycatcher

The tyrant flycatchers are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds on Earth, with more than 400 species. They are the most diverse avian family in every country in the Americas, except for the United States and...

s (Tyrannidae), are most commonly seen to feed on the fruit. Some birds, such as the Silver-beaked Tanager

Silver-beaked Tanager

The Silver-beaked Tanager, Ramphocelus carbo, is a medium-sized passerine bird. This tanager is a resident breeder in South America from eastern Colombia and Venezuela south to Paraguay and central Brazil, and on Trinidad. It is common and conspicuous in some areas—it may be the bird most...

 (Ramphocelus carbo), prune off the seedcoat and eat it, discarding the seed, but most swallow the entire fruit. Species such as the Swallow Tanager

Swallow Tanager

Tersina is a genus of tanager. It contains a single species, the Swallow Tanager . It is found widely throughout South America, from Panama to n...

 (Tersina viridis) and the Pale-breasted Thrush

Pale-breasted Thrush

The Pale-breasted Thrush is a species of bird in the Turdidae family.It is found in a wide range of wooded habitats in eastern and northern South America, with localized population in the west....

 (Turdus leucomelas), but perhaps most of all the Sayaca Tanager

Sayaca Tanager

The Sayaca Tanager is a species of bird in the Thraupidae family, the tanagers.It is a common resident in northeastern, central, and southeastern Brazil, and Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northeast Argentina...

 (Thraupis sayaca), appear to be particularly fond of them. Indeed, the Sayaca Tanager will defend richly fruiting A. glandulosa trees against similar-sized birds such as the Blue Dacnis

Blue Dacnis

The Blue Dacnis or Turquoise Honeycreeper, Dacnis cayana, is a small passerine bird. This member of the tanager family is found from Nicaragua to Panama, on Trinidad, and in South America south to Bolivia and northern Argentina...

 (Dacnis cayana) or the Red-eyed Vireo

Red-eyed Vireo

The Red-eyed Vireo, Vireo olivaceus, is a small American songbird, 13–14 cm in length. It is somewhat warbler-like but not closely related to the New World warblers...

 (Vireo olivaceus). It may be that at least locally, T. sayaca is crucial for the tree's reproduction and survival.

A. glandulosa fruit are also significant food of certain migrant

Bird migration

Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

 birds in their winter quarters. In particular the Red-eyed Vireo and the White-necked Thrush

White-necked Thrush

The White-necked Thrush is a songbird found in forest and woodland in South America. The taxonomy is potentially confusing, and it sometimes includes the members of the T. assimilis group as subspecies, in which case the "combined species" is referred to as the White-throated Thrush...

 (Turdus albicollis) have been noted to be fond of them, and Swainson's Flycatcher

Swainson's Flycatcher

Swainson's Flycatcher is a species of bird in the Tyrannidae family.It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela....

s (Myiarchus swainsoni) visit the trees very often too. But as it does not relish the fruits very much, the latter species is perhaps more attracted to insects living on the tree.