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Family: Bignoniaceae
jacaranda, more...Palo de buba, pata de elefante
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Description: A tall forest tree with straight trunk, branched near the top. The bark is light brown, with fine vertical fissures, unspotted. At the base, the trunk broadens into small buttresses which have horizontal wrinkles, like an elephant's trunk.Leaves are bipinnately compound, meaning each leaf divides twice, looking fern-like. Leaflets are small, usually less than 5 cm long, pointed, can be 100 or more per leaf; on juveniles, leaflets can be toothed. Leaves are opposite, and on juveniles can be over 1 meter long (somewhat smaller on adults). A very fast-growing tree. Reproduction: Jacaranda produces one of the spectacular floral displays in the area. During the dry season, usually in March, large purple flowers cover the entire crown, and this is easily visible on hillsides, along the Canal, even from airplanes. The fruits are round, flat, dry disks, brown, maturing from July to October. They break open to release tiny, winged seeds, and at Barro Colorado, this species produces more seeds than any other. The empty disks are often found on the ground beneath big trees. Trees are deciduous for a brief period early in the dry season, but regrow leaves prior to flowering. Distribution: A common canopy tree at Barro Colorado, Soberania, and Sherman, around Gamboa and along the Canal from Gamboa to Barro Colorado. South of Gamboa, it is scarce, although it can be found on the Pacific slope. Inside the forest, juveniles are very rare and restricted to natural clearings, but along roads over Cerro Pelado in Gamboa, Pipeline Rd, and Santa Rita, juveniles can be abundant. Similar Species: Tall adults should not be confused, with the elephant-trunk like roots, light brown bark, and small, pointed leaflets. The pointed or toothed, bipinnate (fern-like) leaflets of juveniles are also easy to recognize. The only species that can be confused are several legumes with small leaflets, especially LK schipa Schizolobium parahybum, LK2 but also LK entecy Enterolobium spp. LK2 and LK pla2el Platypodium elegans. LK2 Note that the legumes have rounded leaflets and alternate leaves, but in tall trees, the latter can be hard to see. Both Schizolobium and Jacaranda are common along Pipeline Rd, and they look similar as adults and as juveniles. LK jac1ca Jacaranda caucana LK2 is planted as an ornamental, and is seldom seen in the forest; it has smaller leaflets than J. copaia. Descripción: Árbol de 20 a 35 m de alto. Copa redondeada y con follaje denso. Tronco con raíces tablares pequeñas en la base. La base del tronco en forma de ‘pata de elefante’, de allí su nombre común. Corteza exterior corchosa y con fisuras longitudinales. Hojas bipinnadas y opuestas, alcanzando hasta 1 m de largo. Con 5-20 pinnas, cada una de las cuales puede presentar de 3-25 folíolos, de 1.5-8 x 1-2.5 cm, elípticos, con ápice agudo, bordes enteros a veces dentados y base desigual. Pecíolo pulvinado en la base. Flores en forma de embudo y de color azul. Frutos en cápsulas aplanadas, de 8-14 cm de largo, verdes, redondos a ovalados, tornándose negros y dehiscentes al madurar. Semillas aladas y pequeñas. Datos Ecológicos: La especie crece a bajas y medianas elevaciones, en bosques húmedos o muy húmedos. En Panamá se encuentra en las provincias de Bocas del Toro, Coclé, Colón, Darién, Panamá y la comarca de Guna Yala. Común en bosques secundarios y áreas recién taladas de la vertiente del Caribe. Deja caer parcialmente sus hojas durante la estación seca, pero las repone a inicios de la estación lluviosa. Florece y fructifica de febrero a octubre. Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK schipa Schizolobium parahyba LK2 , pero S. parahyba tiene hojas alternas y las flores son amarillas. También se puede confundir con LK diloco Dilodendron costaricense LK2 , pero D. costaricense las hojas son alternas. LK jac1ca Jacaranda caucana LK2 es un árbol cultivado que tiene hojas y flores muy parecidas, pero los folíolos son más pequeños y los frutos son cápsulas aplanadas, redondas a ovaladas, pero tienen el borde ondulado, lo cual no ocurre en J. copaia. Usos: La madera es empleada en la fabricación de tableros, cajas, palillos de fósforos, mangos de escobas y en la producción de pulpa para papel. Por su rápido crecimiento en bosques secundarios húmedos o muy húmedos, se pueden emplear para recuperar ecosistemas degradados. Por su hermosa floración se puede utilizar como planta ornamental en parques y avenidas. Tree, to 45 m tall; trunk 30-50 cm dbh, often buttressed, often wrinkled near base; outer bark fissured, very soft, thin, light brown, flaking; inner bark light tan, with minute reddish-brown sap droplets in time after being slashed; petioles, rachises, and midribs below with granular puberulence. Leaves bipinnate, crowded near apex of branches, to 40 cm long (juvenile branches with the leaves to 1.5 m long); petioles and rachises with medial groove; rachis ± angulate; pinnae 5-20 per leaf; leaflets 3-25 per pinna, ± elliptic, inequilateral, 2.5-7 cm long, 1.5-3.5 cm wide, conspicuously punctate on both surfaces, toothed only on juveniles. Flowers precocious, the panicles very large, narrow, borne among leaves near apex of stem, dense but well spaced on rachis; calyx ± truncate, but often split on one side, 4-7 mm long, densely pubescent with short, branched trichomes, lepidote; corolla lavender-blue, 4-5 cm long, densely pubescent with branched trichomes outside and on lobes inside, the tube constricted 7-8 mm at base, then prominently flaring, somewhat curved, white inside, glabrous except for glandular trichomes near juncture of stamens; stamens included, the longer pair 1.1-1.3 cm long; anthers with one theca very reduced; base of filaments and staminodium with glandular trichomes; staminodium to 3 cm long, tufted at apex; pistil 1.5-1.8 cm long; ovary flattened-cylindrical, 2-2.5 mm long and wide, 1.5 mm thick, glabrous. Capsules shortly and broadly oblong, rounded at both ends, compressed, 8-14 cm long, 5-8 cm broad, glabrous, prominently and minutely lenticellate; seeds suborbicular, to 2.5 cm long and 4 cm wide, the seminiferous area 5-6 mm long, the wings transparent except for veins extending out from center, with a distinct sinus at point of attachment. Croat 6782, 7888.<br/><br/> Common to locally abundant in the forest. Flowers from February to May; individuals flower in an extravagant burst that lasts over a month. The fruits mature from July to October, with a few fruits falling as late as April (Foster, 1974). Leaves fall in the early dry season and are replaced after flowering.<br/><br/> Belize to the Guianas, Brazil, and Peru. In Panama, a characteristic tree species of tropical moist forest (Holdridge & Budowski, 1956; Tosi, 1971) and common in secondary areas at low elevations (Holdridge, 1970); known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, San Blas, Panama, and Darien, from premontane wet forest in Panama, and from tropical wet forest in Colón and Darien. |