Trophis
(from trophe, fodder; alluding to the use of some of the species). Ramoon-tree. SYN. Bucephalon. ORD. Urticaceae. A small genus (five or six species) of stove trees or shrubs, inhabiting the West Indies, Mexico, and the Andes of South America. Flowers sessile or shortly pedicellate; spikes or racemes solitary or twin in the axils, the males loosely bundle-flowered, the females often short and few-flowered. Leaves alternate, petiolate, entire or few-toothed, those of the sterile branches sometimes lobed. The leaves of T. americana are said to be occasionally used in the West Indies as fodder. One or two of the species have been introduced, but they are probably lost to cultivation.