Plant of the day is: Hymenaea verrucosa or Zanzibar copal

Plant of the day is: Hymenaea verrucosa or Zanzibar copal

Also called the East African copal or amber tree.  Locally known as mnangu and mtandarusi.  Another tree, Byrsocarpus boivinianus, also shares the name of mnangu so...perfect example of why the binomial system is so important.  Looks pretty amazing when germinating, periscope up! (see below).  A pretty good sized seed and a beauty to see germinating.  Some of the things I'm growing lately are going to wind up quite large indeed if they stay alive :).

verrucosa: warty (more on that later)

Photo Credit: Justin Lee (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

Whoa, my what cotyledons you have!!

Taxonomy, etc.:  Hymenaea is another fairly small genus of around 23 or so species.  All but one species are native to the tropics of the Americas, with one other species found on the east coast of Africa.  This species right here!  It's the oddball.  Some taxonomists think that this species should be in its own monotypic genus, Trachylobium.  I wouldn't begin to weigh in on this one.  The genus was named by Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum for Hymenaios, the Greek god of marriage cerimonit ceremonies.  Somehow this references the paired leaflets, which ...to be honest is pretty common in legumes so ...well, whatever, he got to pick the name.  Leaves in the genus are pinnately bifoliolate and panicles in corymb inflorescence.

Fruits and seeds of Hymenaea verrucosa Photo Credit: Roger Culos (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The seeds were pretty cool.  You can see both the fruit and seed here.  Nice shot.

Description:  A flat-crowned evergreen tree, usually growing from 6 to 24 m.  Again leaves are bipinnate and hairless with leaflets ovate-elliptic.  A distinctive midrib has dark spots on the underside (neat).  Leaf margin is entire with a 1 to 3 cm petiole.  Flowers form in axillary and terminal panicles.  Flowers are small, and white, and in the typical legume fashion.  The fruit pods are ...well ...you can see above.  A neat feature is the small ring of hairs near the base of the fruit (see far right image).  Did I mention the warty resin bubbles on the fruit?  Yep, they harden and set when the fruit falls and that is why you get that interesting look in the seeds above.  This is what earns it the verrucosa title.  A very nice smoothish brown/red bark as well.  Very attractive really.  More info here.  In drier climates it will shed its leaves in the dry season (worth mentioning).  Also, it typically has a very clear bole quite a ways up with few low hanging branches.

Flowering branches Photo Credit: George E. Schatz (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Habitat/culture:  Coastal forests, woodland thickets, often on sandy soils.  Found throughout a good chunk of Kenya and South Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles.  From what I can tell it exists in several different soil types to slightly drier to quite a bit wetter.  I have a feeling it would mind well drained soil.  Probably exists better in wetter areas due to the sand being more porous, just a guess.  Definitely full sun and happy with humidity.  A bit more info and pictures here.

Bonus:  Often harvested for its timber as well as for it's resin.  The genus in general has edible fruits as well and are a fairly common market food in the Americas.  In the 18th and 19th century the yellow resin was an important export from Kilwa to Europe and the Arabian Peninsula.  This was back when varnish was still made the ole fashion way and not synthesized.