Kingdom Plantae Family Sapotaceae Rank Species | Order Ericales Genus Pouteria | |
Similar Pouteria viridis, Banara vanderbiltii, Casearia guianensis | ||
Pouteria multiflora is a plant in the Sapotaceae family of the Ericales order. Its English common name is bullytree. Its Spanish common names include jácana, ácana, acana, hacana, or jacana. It is native to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The plant is common in the Toro Negro State Forest.
It can grow from 40–90 feet high and from 2–3 feet in diameter and is found throughout tropical America. It yields very good timber that can be used for mill rollers, frames, furniture, and house building. Acana wood is light colored, fine and straight grained, hard, very heavy, strong, durable, and can be polished to shine. The pores are small and arranged in radial rows. Pith rays narrow and indistinct.
A similar definition of the Acana tree is given by Constantino Suarez in his Diccionario de voces Cubanas as; wild indigenous tree with a straight trunk that grows to 10 meters with coriaceous rigid oval leaves which produces a nutritious fruit smaller than the zapote, and whose wood is valued in Cuba for rustic houses and ship building because of the wood's durability and hardness, qualities enhanced by its sonority, weight, and beautiful reddish color.