Sonoran Sea Grape
Coccoloba goldmanii

Family: Polygonaceae

OTHER NAMES
Spanish: uval de mar, roble de la costa

CHARACTERISTICS
Large shrub or medium sized tree reaching as much as 25’ in frost free locations. Leaves are large and evergreen, almost like a tropical Ficus. These are usually multi-trunked plants. Drooping spikes of flowers yield grape-like clusters of fruits.

LANDSCAPE USE
Screening shrub or small specimen tree.

Photo of Coccoloba goldmanii at University of Arizona Arboretum

GROWING CONDITIONS
AN EXPLANAITION OF TERMS USED

SUN afternoon shade in the low desert
WATER moderate
SOIL not picky, but well-drained
HARDINESS can tolerate light frosts but best placed in a winter-warm microclimate
BASIN high zone
CONTAINER does moderately well in containers but will not attain full size
NUTRITION low
MAINTENANCE very little

ECOLOGY
The fruit of the Sonoran Sea Grape are valuable to the wildlife that feed off of it. The flowers are also important to bees and other nectar seeking organisms.

ETHNOBOTANY
Being a part of the Polgonaceae family, or the Buckwheat family, the Sonoran Sea Grape has in fact been found to be edible.

NATURAL DISTRIBUTION
Native to the coastal areas of Sonora, Sinaloa, and southwestern Chihuahua.

TAXONOMY AND NAME
This plant is in the Polygonaceae, the buckwheat family. There are 179 species of Coccoloba.
Coccoloba comes from the Greek kokkolobis, a kind of grape, literally, "berry pod". The species is named for the collector of the plant, Edward Alphonso Goldman who was an American zoologist and botanist. He worked extensively in Mexico with Edward William Nelson and described and revised many groups of plants and mammals.

Coccoloba goldmanii on iNaturalist

Coccoloba goldmanii at the UA Campus Arboretum where you can see plants in cultivation in the United States (Tucson)