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Family: Fabaceae
Monkeysoap, more...Guanacaste (es: árbol de las orejas, corotú)
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Description: A very large pasture tree. The huge trunk on big individuals often forks near the ground, so the immensely wide crown almost touches the ground. There are trees near the Panamerican highway with a crown that spreads across the road and touches the ground on the opposite side. Occasionally does grow a straight, unbranched crown, though. Leaves are bipinnate - doubly compound - with tiny leaflets, about 10 mm long by 2 mm wide. Reproduction: Drops its leaves during the middle of the dry season, but grows them back before rains begin, then produces flowers. The flowers are 2-3 cm balls of stamen, cream-colored, and single trees smell sweet from afar when covered with flowers. The fruits are green at first, but mature brown, and shaped like an ear; they take an entire year to develop. Cattle, goats, horses eat the fruits and disperse the see Distribution: The dominant large tree of pastures and grasslands of the Pacific slope in Panama. It can also be a major component of secondary forest, where the forest recently regenerated from pasture. Very common around Panama City, Parque Metropolitano, all along the Canal to Gamboa. There are quite a few individuals in second forest at Pipeline Rd, and just a few remnant trees in the second forest at Barro Colorado. There are no saplings at all in the forest - it only regenerates successfully in open fields where there are livestock around. Similar Species: The corotú has a close relative - LK entesc Enterolobium schomburgkii LK2 -- which looks very similar and is easily confused, and both species are abundant in secondary forests around Panama City and Gamboa. E. schomburgkii has smaller, more numerous leaflets - only about 1 mm wide, almost needles, and it never reaches the large size of the corotú. There are other legumes with fine, compound leaves, LK acacme Acacia LK2 for instance, which are more likely to be distinguished by the form and size of the tree and the habitat, not the leaves. Uses: The wood is fine quality, used for furniture, and giant trunks are used for making dugout canoes. Descripción: Árbol de 20 a 35 m de alto. Tronco con raíces tablares pequeñas en la base, las cuales se continúan con largas raíces superficiales que pueden alcanzar una longitud igual al diámetro de la copa. El tronco y las ramas a veces pueden presentar manchas anaranjadas ocasionadas por líquenes. Corteza exterior gris y con lenticelas de color marrón. Hojas bipinnadas y alternas, con 4-15 pares de pinnas opuestas. Pinnas con 15-30 pares de folíolos pequeños, de 8-15 x 2-4 mm, oblongos y asimétricos, con ápice agudo, bordes enteros y base redondeada. Pecíolo de 3-5 cm de largo y pulvinado en la base, con una glándula en la parte media superior. Raquis con glándulas entre el par de pinnas terminales. Flores blancas y agrupadas en cabezuelas globulares. Frutos en legumbres anchas y aplanadas, de 15-38 cm de largo y en forma de una ‘oreja humana’, verdes, tornándose marrón rojizo o negros al madurar. La parte interior del fruto es esponjosa y se encuentra impregnada de un líquido gomoso y pegajoso. Datos Ecológicos: La especie crece a bajas elevaciones, en bosques y lugares secos o húmedos. En Panamá se encuentra en las provincias de Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí, Coclé, Herrera, Los Santos y Panamá. Común en sabanas y pastizales en áreas secas de las provincias de Herrera y Los Santos. Deja caer totalmente sus hojas durante la estación seca, pero las repone a inicios de la estación lluviosa. Florece y fructifica de marzo a mayo. Las flores son visitadas por abejas, mariposas y otros insectos. Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK entesc Enterolobium schomburgkii LK2 , pero E. schomburgkii tiene hojas de mayor tamaño y los frutos son más pequeños. También se puede confundir con LK albini Albizia niopoides LK2 , pero en A. niopoides la corteza exterior del tronco es exfoliante en láminas y los frutos son legumbres aplanadas. Usos: La madera es empleada en la elaboración de tableros decorativos, bateas, carpintería de interiores, ebanistería, cajas, postes de cercas, leña, pulpa de papel y en la fabricación de botes. El fruto es comestible para el ganado. Las semillas se tuestan para separarlas fácilmente del tegumento leñoso que las cubre, constituyendo así un excelente y sabroso alimento humano. El fruto verde contiene saponinas y se utilizaba en el pasado como sustituto del jabón. El tronco del árbol exuda un líquido gomoso que se emplea como un remedio para la bronquitis. (Jacq.) Griseb., Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 226.1860 Tree, to 30 m tall and 1.5 (3) m dbh, branched from near the ground, the crown widely spreading; outer bark with rough fissures; wood reddish-brown; branchlets usually glabrous in age. Leaves sometimes several at a node, bipinnate with 4-15 pairs of opposite pinnae, puberulent; petioles 4-8 cm long, with a round gland near middle of upper surface; rachis and pinnular rachis with glands at insertions near apex; leaflets in 15-30 pairs per pinna, +/- oblong, decidedly inequilateral, acute at apex, rounded at base, 8-15 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, sometimes glabrate. Inflorescences axillary in groups of 1-3, white, puberulent to glabrate throughout, 2-4 (6) cm long; heads globular, ca 2 cm wide; bracts minute; flowers sessile, green; calyx 2-3 mm long, the lobes to 0.5 mm long, subacute; corolla 5-6 mm long, the lobes to 1.5 mm long, subacute; stamens to 12 mm long; filaments united in basal half; anthers white; style +/- equaling stamens. Legumes reniform, flat, glabrous, 4-6 cm wide, curved into a nearly complete or overlapping circle to 11 cm diam; seeds ovoid-compressed, 1.5-2 cm long, to 1 cm wide, smooth, brown, bearing a lighter submarginal ring on either flattened surface. Croat 7365, 8708. Uncommon, persisting as large trees in areas of previous cultivation. Flowers principally in the dry season (January to May). The fruits mature one year later in the dry season. The tree is leafless for a short time before flowering and produces new leaves at about the same time as the flowers. Neal Smith (pers. comm.) reports that an individual of E. cyclocarpum flowered in January in three consecutive years. Tropical Mexico to northern South America; introduced into the West Indies and West Africa. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, and Darien; reported also from premontane moist forest in Panama (Tosi, 1971). See Fig. 260. |
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