Hi all, I'd like a confirmation or negation if that's at all possible. These trees bear all the signs of being Cinchona officinalis, right down to bitter bark, but I'm not 1000% sure. I may have to wait for them to bloom. Any help y'all could give me would be great; C. officinalis is a protected species here, so I'd like to know if I need to protect the trees from poachers. (some have already had limbs hacked off and stolen...) Thanks in advance!
It looks like a possibility. Is that pattern of leaf colouration (gradation from red to green) typical on your tree?
It's typical to newer growth; older leaves lose some of the red gradation and pick up a richer green tone. One of the trees is starting to produce inflorescences; when the light picks up again tomorrow I'll go out and photo them, as they might help with a positive ID. Thanks!
Oy~ I forgot to mention. New leaves come out covered in a spadix or caul or something, which splits longitudinally when the leaf has reached a certain length and is ready to emerge, and the leaf then sort of laterally unrolls. The spadix-like part dries up and falls off when the leaf is fully unfurled. You can see the unfurling part happening to the narrow leaf in photo number 2. (This is the first non-aroid I've ever encountered that does this, and even then the aroids only do it with inflorescences, and the spadix for my aroids is persistent.)