Common Names: Jatobá, West Indian Locust Bean, Courbaril, Guapinol, 孿葉豆, 南美叉葉樹 Scientific Name:Hymenaea courbaril L. [1] Family: Fabaceae/Leguminosae (Subfamily: Detarioideae) [2] Natural Distribution: Central to South America, including some Caribbean islands. [3, 4] Natural Habitat: Tropical rainforest, usually along riverbanks, tropical dry forests, subtropical rainforests and tropical montane forests. [3, 5] Description: Evergreen tree that can grow to 40m tall. Larger specimens with trunk of around 1m in diameter. Bark whitish and rather smooth. Leaves bifoliate smooth and can grow up to 12 cm long and 7 cm wide. [5] Flower: Inflorescence terminal. The creamy white flowers are bisexual. The flower has 4 distinct sepals, 5 petals and around 10 stamens. [5] Seeds: Fruits at about 10 years old in natural environment. [5] Fruit pods are oblong can get more than 10 cm long. Orthodox brown seeds with hard seed coats are about 2cm in length and are surrounded by a creamy and powdery pulp layer. In their native range in the Amazon, the seeds can be dispersed by agoutis and other terrestrial mammals.
In modern society, this hardwood tree is most commonly used as timber, which yields excellent durable wood. In their native range, locals use the gum from this tree. The bark is reported to be used by indigenous Amazonians for medicinal purposes. [5] The pulp is edible raw or cooked and is described as sweetish but powdery.
I was really fortunate to be able to collect the fruits of jatobá. In 2019 January at Meinong Shuangxi Tropical Arboretum in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. A bit of scrambling in the woods allowed me to find some seeds. It appears that the tree does not fruit every year at this location or at least the production varies considerably every year, it may be affected by precipitation levels.
2019/01/05, Hymenaea courbaril sapling near the mother tree at Meinong Shuangxi Tropical Arboretum in Kaohsiung (美濃雙溪樹木園).
Common Names: Rubber tree/Pará rubber tree (English), Seringueira (Portuguese), Pokok Getah (Malay), Cây Cao su (Vietnamese), रबड़ (Hindi), ยางพารา (Thai), パラゴムノキ (Japanese), 巴西橡膠樹 (Chinese)
Scientific Name: Hevea brasiliensis (Willd. ex A.Juss.) Müll.Arg. Family: Euphorbiaceae Natural Distribution: Amazon (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) Natural Habitat: More often in tropical rainforest riverbanks and areas with periodic flooding, ranging up to 2,000m above sea level. Description: Deciduous tropical mid-canopy to canopy tree that can grow over 30m in the wild (usually less than 15-20m in plantation), capable of growing branchless for at least 10m from base. The trunk can grow to 3m in diametre. Smooth palmate/trifoliate leaves in form of 3 leaflets; mature leaflets can grow over 30cm long. Petioles around 15cm. Can shed leaves once or twice a year, usually during Northern Hemisphere’s spring and or autumn (depends on local climate, usually just before rainy season), and before shedding the leaves starts to lose its green colour, turning yellowish and then finally turning red. Flower: Plant is monoecious. Flowers late spring in Northern Hemisphere (somewhere between late March to late May), and can flower up to twice a year. Flowering period is about a 2 weeks. Inflorescence paniculate axillary, flowers yellow to cream coloured. Female flowers have 3 carpels. Usually more male flowers than females and female flowers usually slightly larger. Flower has sweet scent. Seeds: The 2-3cm long and wide seeds are brown with irregular black spots/stripes and has lustre. The recalcitrant seeds and should be sown as soon as possible (starts losing viability within a week). Fruiting season normally around September but can start earlier or extend to the next year. Mature fruit pod has 3 lobes (each lobe with one seed) is brown and roughly 6-7cm long. The seeds are toxic as they contain linamarin, which when ingested gets converted into the toxic hydrogen cyanide. Method of dispersal is through the ripe fruits bursting open to release the seeds.
The rubber tree or Pará rubber tree is one of the primary source of natural rubber and is still commercially produced. The rubber from Hevea brasiliensis are manufactured to make some of the commonly seen daily products such as tyres, condoms, rubber gloves etc. Natural rubber plantations exists throughout the tropics around the world, and the top 8 producing countries are all within tropical Asia. Thailand is currently the largest producer of natural rubber followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Vietnam. This species is considered naturalized in some tropical countries around the world where it was initially introduced for harvesting natural rubber (considered as weed in Eastern African countries). The latex is harvested from trees older than 6-8 years old. The harvester (also known as tapper) makes multiple diagonal slits along the bark of the tree and let the latex sap drip into the collecting cups. The quality of natural rubber usually makes it a better choice than the cheaper synthetic rubber. There are sophisticated ways to grow the rubber trees in certain conditions to produce latex of higher quality. In the past years as the automobile industry grew, so did the demand for rubber plantations, which provided invaluable income to those in poverty, however the continual expansion of rubber monoculture plantations has some concerning environmental impact. Aside from the latex, the seeds are a source of oil and the wood can be a source of charcoal.
2018/01/04, lucky fresh seed I collected on the 3rd of January 2018. This fresh seed still has the “shine”. There weren’t many seeds when I looked under the tree, most were rotten, some were infested with bugs.
Scientific Name: Anthurium vittariifolium Engl. Family: Araceae Natural Distribution: Tropical South American Amazon Natural Habitat: Wet humid rainforest. Description: Evergreen pendent epiphytic plant. Mature smooth matted-green leaves can grow to lengths of 1 to 2 meters. The leaves can grow to 10 cm wide at the widest points. Seeds: Seeds are probably recalcitrant and might have a complicated storage method (I have never seen or heard of people buying Anthurium seeds). The ripe fruit is bright reddish-magenta-pink-coloured and the mesocarp is slightly sticky. Seeds are roughly 5mm long.
All parts of the plant is toxic to ingest (same for cats and dogs) as the sap contains calcium oxalate and various irritants that may cause serious inflammatory response along the digestive tracts and other parts of the body. Prolonged dermal exposure to the sap can cause itching and the irritants can even be absorbed through the skin into the body.
Prefers partial to complete shade, making it a good greenhouse or indoor plant. I am not sure how hardy this species is, so even when substantially developed and matured, I will still keep this species indoors in a subtropical region. When I got the seeds I didn’t plant them straight away (a little busy), so I left the seeds in the fruit (I feel that this prevents the seed from germinating without affecting its viability).
Common Names: Big Leaf Mahogany/Honduran Mahogany (English), Caobo (Spanish), Nhạc ngựa (Vietnamese), 大葉桃花心木 (Chinese)
Scientific Name: Swietenia macrophyllaKing Family: Meliaceae Natural Distribution: Southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominica, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peruvian Amazon, Lowland Bolivia, Brazilian Amazon and possibly The Guianas and other Caribbean Islands. Natural Habitat: Occur in tropical rainforests up to 1,500m in altitude. IUCN Red List: Vulnerable Description: An evergreen tree (sheds leaves when spring comes and quickly grows back leaves) that can grow to 40m high and at least 1m in diameter in their natural habitat. Large specimens are buttressed. The wood inside is reddish brown. New young leaves are pinkish red and turns green when matures. Mature leaflets usually can grow to around 20cm. When leaves mature they paripinnate with even numbered leaflets (usually odd numbered when young). Leaves are smooth and mature leaflets usually grow obliquely and acuminate. Flower: Flowering in spring. The same tree has male and female flowers (very similar visually). The panicle is roughly around 15-30cm. Flowers are small (less than 1cm), with 5 petals and are creamy green coloured. Seeds: Often called the sky fruit as the tip of the capsule (about 10-15cm long) always points upwards and most of the time towards the sky. Once the woody capsule (fruit) matures, the samara (fruits with wing-like structures) within is dispersed by wind (rotate like a helicopter). Dehiscent capsule has 5 lobes. Fruits usually in summer. Seeds exhibit orthodox behaviour in professionally-set low temperature and low humidity storage.
National Tree of Belize. The genus Swietenia (named after a physician called Gerard van Swieten) is comprised of 3 species (might be more) and the genus is closely related to the African relative Khaya (another genus in the Meliaceae family, the genus is also comprised of species capable of producing quality timber). Swietenia fruits are hard to distinguish apart but one easy way to differentiate the species is that Swietenia macrophylla, as the name suggests (literally means big leaf), has the biggest leaf in the genus. The species is exploited for its timber, with populations dwindling in their natural distribution. Compared to Swietenia mahagoni (L.) Jacq., Swietenia macrophylla has softer wood but grows much faster. Although they are endangered, they are invasive species in some wet tropical regions that are outside of their native zone and are quite prolific. It is now a quite commonly planted tree in the tropics, especially for forestation. Even when mature, this species probably cannot tolerate temperatures lower than 5°C/41°F for an extended period of time. From what I have seen, I think the mahoganies flower and fruit more consistently in at least a subtropical climate and with at least 2,000 hours of sunshine a year.
I find that this genus fruits best (and more consistently) in tropical climates (and in places warm enough that winters are short and still able to reach at least 21°C/70°F during the day). I have tried to germinate stored Swietenia macrophylla seeds but was unsuccessful (I did put it in the fridge for 3 months along with Khaya senegalensis and 8 out of 15 Khaya senegalensis seeds germinated while all Swietenia macrophylla seeds grew mold). So in case seeds are faulty, collect many and make sure they are fresh (if the wings are still crisp and the colour is not dark brown then the seeds are likely to be fresh).
2018/06/16, 6th day of germination. Again I germinated the seed in Sphagnum moss.
RAINFOREST WISH 