Phenology of flora components in the use of natural and traditional medicine in the community of Verraco, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

Abstract

Based on ethnobotanical studies carried out in the community of Verraco, belonging to the Baconao Biosphere Reserve, province of Santiago de Cuba, the components of the flora used in natural and traditional medicine were identified in situ, and the reproductive phenology of each of the identified species was determined. The objective of the work was to present the flowering and fruiting patterns of flora species that are components of natural and traditional medicine in the coastal community of Verraco, which belongs to the Baconao Biosphere Reserve. A total of 82 species of flowering plants used by the community for natural and traditional medicine were recorded, which are grouped into 75 genera and 49 botanical families. Of the total species studied, 46 % (38) were recorded with flowers and fruits, while only 12 % (10) and 39 % (32) were determined in the flowering and fruiting stages, respectively. Of the total species, only four are endemic and 24 % are naturalized, while 19 % correspond to non-indigenous but possibly naturalized species. Forty species flowers, coinciding with the rainy season, while 36 bear fruit during the same period. In the dry or low rainfall stage, a total of 57 species were recorded to flower in this period. A total of 27 species present a flowering stage of more than four months, while 21 species bear fruit in a similar stage of time. Only one species was recorded that flowers and bears fruit all year round: Heliotropium angiospermum. A total of 21 species present synchrony, as both phenological periods coincide in the same reproductive stage.