Common Trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

ind (Grenadines, Trinidad) ; French tamarind,
guango (British Guiana) ; monkeypod (Hawaii
arbre B pluie (French) ; gouannegoul (Haiti
samana (Gudeloupe) .
&Y~ANICAL ~ ~~~os~~s.-Samnea saman (Jacq.)
Merrill, Enterobbium saman (Jacq.) Prain.
The Spanish word "samiin" and the specific name
are from the South American aboriginal name.
Several origins of the English word raintree and
its French equivalent have been given. Early
travelers reported that the trees mysteriously pro-
LEGUME FAMILY (LEGUMINOSAE)
duced rain at night and would not sleep under-
neath. Others observed the grass to be R""'
beneath the trees during droughts. Anot er ex-
planation was that the rain was excreta of cicada
insects inhabiting the trees. More plausible is
that the leaflets close up at night and in cloudy
and rainy weather, indicating the approach of rain
and also letting rain fall through the crown to the
grass beneath. The Spanish name dormil6n re-
fers also to the movements of the leaflets suggest-
ing sleep at night.
MIMOSA SUBFAMILY (MIMOSOIDEAE; MIMOSACEAE)
70. Bayahonda, mesquite
Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC.*
A small flat-topped spiny tree or shrub of dry erately hard, heavy (specific gravity 0.8), tough
areas recognized by: (1) slightly zigzag green to and strong, easy to work, resistant to decay, and
brown twigs with paired stout brown or gray durable in the ground but susceptible to attack by
spines at the enlarged nodes; (2) leaves twice pin- dr wood termites.
nate (bipinnate) with 1 or sometimes 2 pairs of 6sed in Puerto Rico only for fenceposts and
lateral axes (pinnae), each with 12-25 pairs of al- crossties. Elsewhere the wood hns served for
most stalkless narrow leaflets 1/4-5/8 inch long; (3) vehicle parts, rural car entry, furniture, and
many small pale yellow flowers about s/10 inch formarl even paving bloc
3:
R s. It is a superior fuel
long, crowded and almost stalkless in narrow and ma es charcoal of high quality. An amber
drooping clusters 2 4 inches long; and (4) light gum resembling gum arabic exudes from the trunk
yellowish-brown, flattened but thick pods 4-9 and, when dissolved in mate:, becomes a mucilage.
inches long and 5/1& inch wide, and not splitting The bark has been employed 1n tanning.
open. The nutritious pods are browsed by livestock
Deciduous, 20-30 feet high, with a short crooked .and eaten by children. Cattle are partly responsitrunk
to 1v2 feet in diameter, and with broad ble for the extensive invasion of pastures by this
crown of very thin spreading foliage. The gray tree. Indians of YIexico and southwestern United
or brown bark is rough and furrowed, thick and States ground the pods into meal as a staple food
becoming slightly shaggy, the inner bark yellow- for baking and for mixing with water as a beverish,
fibrous, and slightly bitter. The spines (stip- age. This is an important hone plant, and bees
ules) are j/4-1 inch or more in length.
commonly are seen around the 2 owars, which are
The leaves, mostly borne on very short twigs not frapant.
along larger ones, often are crowded though actu- Naturnlized in thickets and dry forests in the
ally alternate. They are 3-6 inches long, with dry limestone and dry coastal regions of southern
slender green leaf axes. Blades are narrow (lin- Puerto Rico, commonly invnding pastures. Ocear-oblong),
?/10-y8 inch wide, rounded at both casionally lanted for ornament. Also in Mona,
ends or minutely pointed at apex, slightly oblique St. Croix, &. Thomns, and Tortola.
at base, thin, and dull blue green on both sides. PUBLIC FORESTS.--A~U~I'~~, GuSnica, Sda.
Flower clusters (spikes) are lateral, often on ~~UNICIPALZTIES WHERE ESPECIALLY COMMON.-
twigs back of leaves. Flo\\ler buds are yellow 12,38.
green. The greenish-yellow tubular calyx is less RANGE.--Including its geographic varieties na-
than 340 inch long; bell-shaped, and 5-toothed; tive from southwestern United States (Texas to
there are 5 narrow jireenish-~ellow petals 'h inch Kansas, Utah, and California) south through
long, hairy an illslde; 10 spreading yello\~-orange
stamens with brown anthers, less than 3/10 inch
long; and pistil 3/16 long with light
green ovary and slender whitish curved style.
The pods are about %6 inch thick and
curved or straight. The brown seeds 1/4 inch long
am imbedded a whitisl, slistly s\vwt pulp,
Jfexico and Central America to Colombia and
vellezue]a and perhaps southward.
Tllrou+ West, Indies, apparently introduced and
naturalized, from Bahamas and Cuba to Barbados
and Trinidad in Bonaire, Cmao, md
hrnba. Also naturalized in Hawaii and Old
which can be eaten. Flowering and fruiting
through much of the year, chiefly in the summer
and fall.
The thin sapwood is light yellow, and the heartwood
yellowish to dark brown. The wood is modlITor1d
This species seems to be very much at home in
Puerto Rico and other islands of the West Indies
even tllough not native. The locrclity of the botanical
type specimen is Jamaica, though an
166