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Family: Fabaceae
amansa mujer, more...cativo
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Description: One of the spectacular forest trees of Panama, having a clear straight bole, unbuttressed and generally unbranched until near the top, sometimes nearly 50 m tall -- one of the tallest trees of the area. The crown is deep, with very dense foliage; almost no light passes through. Leaves are alternate, compound, with exactly four leaflets. Leaflets are shiny on the topy, assymetric. The base of the leaf stalk is swollen, green, cylindrical. Reproduction: Flowers are small, cream-colored or white, above the crown and not usually seen from below, produced toward the end of the wet season. Fruits are a flat, brown, circular pod, concave on one side, with a single large seed, maturing from February into the beginning of the wet season. The pods are often seen on the ground beneath big trees. Distribution: A common canopy tree in the old forest on the south half of Barro Colorado Island and on the Gigante Peninsula south of Barro Colorado. Near Sherman, it grows in swampy terrain, and in some parts is the dominant tree (the road from the Gatun locks to the old Fort Sherman passes through one such catival). Not seen elsewhere in the Canal area. Numerous both as a sapling in the shade and as a canopy adult where it occurs. Similar Species: On saplings and small trees, where leaves are easily seen, Prioria is easy to recognize from the 4 leaflets. The only other non-liana in the area with 4 leaflets is LK sennda Senna darienensis, LK2 which is a small, leaning shrub. As a large tree, leaves are hard to see, and Prioria is then not easy to identify, but few species of its size are unbuttressed and have such straight trunks. Check for leaves on the ground, because the assymetric leaflets are distinctive, and also look for the woody fruits. Uses: Cativo is one of the most commonly harvested timber trees of Panama, owing to its large size and its tendency to form nearly monospecific stands in swamps along rivers. These stands are called cativales, and they are abundant in the Darien of eastern Panama, where they are heavily logged. The wood is not of high quality, though, and is used for plywood, crates, sometimes for furniture. Locally, the bark is stripped from trees for making cord, and resin from the wood is used as medicine by native Americans. Descripción: Árbol de 20 a 40 m de alto. Copa redondeada y con follaje denso. Tronco recto y cilíndrico. Corteza exterior marrón, áspera y lenticelada, a veces exfoliante en láminas. Corteza interior roja. Hojas paripinnadas y alternas, con 1-2 pares de folíolos, opuestos, coriáceos y con puntos translúcidos. Folíolos de 4-16 x 3-8 cm, elípticos y asimétricos, con ápice acuminado, bordes enteros y base redondeada. Generalmente las hojas del cativo presentan manchas de color marrón sobre la superficie. Estípulas deciduas. Pecíolo de 1-2.5 cm de largo y pulvinado en la base. Flores blancas en espigas terminales. Frutos en legumbres de 8-10 cm de largo, suborbiculares, cóncavas y aplanadas en uno de sus lados, verdes, tornándose marrón al madurar. Datos Ecológicos: La especie crece a bajas elevaciones, en lugares húmedos o muy húmedos. Común en terrenos pantanosos o inundables de San Lorenzo (Colón), la desembocadura de los ríos en la provincia del Darién y al sur de la isla de Coiba. También ocurre en terrenos no inundables del Monumento Natural de Barro Colorado y de la isla de Coiba. En lugares pantanosos crece asociado con LK moraol Mora oleifera LK2 , LK Pterof Pterocarpus officinalis LK2 , LK caragu Carapa guianensis LK2 y LK cassel Cassipourea elliptica LK2 . Florece y fructifica de septiembre a junio. Las flores son visitadas por abejas y otros insectos. Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK hymeco Hymenaea courbaril LK2 , pero H. courbaril siempre tiene hojas bifolioladas y los frutos son legumbres marrón o ligeramente rojizas, muy diferentes a los del cativo. Usos: La madera es empleada en la elaboración de muebles rústicos, cajas, material de relleno para muebles, ebanistería y tableros de partículas. Actualmente el cativo constituye el 90% de la materia prima utilizada en la industria del contrachapado y el 50% de la producción de madera aserrada en el país, utilizándose ampliamente para ‘plywood’, formaletas y plataformas para carga. La madera contiene grandes cantidades de una goma o resina que es utilizada por nuestros indígenas para curar heridas y picaduras de insectos. Es un árbol de crecimiento lento y debido a la tala indiscriminada con fines comerciales está desapareciendo de nuestros bosques. |
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