Bagassa
Bagassa guianensis is a tree in the plant family Moraceae which is native to the Guianas and Brazil. It is valued as a timber tree and as a food tree for wildlife. The juvenile leaves are distinctly different in appearance from the mature leaves, and were once thought to belong to different species. Description. "Bagassa guianensis" is a large, latex-producing, dioecious, deciduous tree which reaches heights of up and a diameter at breast height of . Leaves are deeply three-lobed in juveniles, but become entire as the tree matures. They are usually long, sometimes up to long, and  wide (sometimes up to wide). Male and female flowers are borne on separate inflorescences. Male inflorescences are arranged in a spike, which is long. Female inflorescences are arranged into a compact head which is in diameter. The edible infructescences are in diameter. Taxonomy. "Bagassa" is a monotypic genus—in includes only one species, "B. guianensis". The genus was established in 1775 by French botanist Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet in his description of the species. Aublet's description was based on juvenile leaves together with infructescences. Based on mature leaves and male inflorescences French botanist Nicaise Auguste Desvaux described "Piper  tiliifolium" in 1825 and Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré described "Laurea tiliifolia" in 1844. Raymond Benoist transferred these to "Bagassa" as "B. tiliifolia" in 1933. In 1880 Louis Édouard Bureau described "B. sagotiana" based on mature leaves and female inflorescences. Plants with juvenile and adult foliage were thought to belong to different species until at least 1975; in his 1975 treatment of the Moraceae for the "Flora of Suriname", Dutch systematist Cornelis Berg maintained "B. guianensis" and "B. tiliifolia" as separate species—the former with lobed juvenile foliage, the latter with the entire leaves of mature trees (although he maintained this distinction  with reservations). This confusion would later be clarified through observations of live trees in the field. Common names. The species is known locally as "cow wood", "katowar", "tuwue" or "yawahedan" in Guyana. In Suriname is it known as "gele bagasse", "jawahedan", "kauhoedoe" or "kaw-oedoe". In French Guiana it is called "bacasse", "bagasse", "odon" or "odoun". In Maranhão state in Brazil it is called "tatajuba" or "tareka'y"; in Pará it is known as "amaparana", "taraiko'i" or "tatajuba"; in Roraima it is called "tatajuba". Distribution. "Bagassa guianensis" is found in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and the northern Amazon basin (in the  states of Amapá, Pará, Maranhão and Roraima) with an apparently disjunct population in the southwestern states of Mato Grosso and Rondônia. Ecology. "Bagassa guianensis" is a "long-lived pioneer" that frequently established in second growth forests and tree-fall gaps. Although the structure of "B. guianensis" flowers suggests bat-pollination, Berg suggested that they might be wind-pollinated since the trees were "tall and deciduous". Direct observation suggests that pollination is primarily by thrips, although the thrips themselves may be dispersed by wind. One study in Pará, Brazil, suggests that on average, seeds were produced by pollen that had travelled  between from the male flowers that produced the pollen to the female flowers that were pollinated. The seeds of "B. guianensis" are dispersed by a variety of animals including monkeys, birds, deer, rodents and tortoises. Uses. "Bagassa guianensis" is a valuable timber species and is intensively exploited. It is used for construction, furniture, and boat-building.