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January 15, 2010 : Pachira aquatica and Pachira glabra
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Plant Family / Families: Malvaceae
Scientific Name and Author: Pachira aquatica Aubl. | Pachira glabra Pasq.
Name Location: Puerto Rico
More photographs today from Ian Crown of the Puerto Rican fruit farm, Panoramic Fruit. Thank you Ian!
Also, before getting into today's entry, welcome readers from the Winston-Salem Journal!
These photographs weren't all taken in the same place or time, and I believe them to be of two separate species. The first photograph, with the crimson-tipped stamens and yellowish-white strap-like petals is, I think, Pachira aquatica, known commonly as Guiana chestnut or Malabar chestnut. The second and third photographs feature what I've tentatively identified as Pachira glabra. In Margaret Barwick's excellent Tropical and Subtropical Trees: An Encyclopedia, she notes Pachira glabra, or saba nut, to have "light-green, strap-like petals and wiry, white, curving stamens". Hawaiian Tropical Plant Nursery provides brief descriptions of the two species, and also adds: "Much of the material in cultivation as Pachira aquatica is actually Pachira glabra..." Many of the so-called "money trees", it is implied, are therefore Pachira glabra.
Both species are native from Mexico to northern South America. Pachira aquatica grows in coastal estuaries; its seeds are "designed to withstand humidity and are capable of floating in water for months", according to Barwick. Pachira glabra is a species of lowland rainforests and alluvial plains.
Ian Crown wrote the following, but given my notes regarding identification of these two species above, I think parts of this account may be apply to Pachira aquatica, Pachira glabra or both:
"I first encountered Pachira aquatica, the Malabar chestnut, in 1994. I was just starting up an exotic fruit farm in western Puerto Rico and everyone there said I had to meet Milton Perez, the owner of a large garden center in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. I made a point of doing so and ended up with a very dear friend who sadly passed away in 2006 around this time of year."
"Milton had the plant version of a menagerie; so many specimens of different fruits and ornamental plants and lumber species, it boggled the mind. Along a drainage canal, he had a few trees of something new to me but which produced edible, delicious nuts in a football-shaped pod. Milton handed me a few to try. Once the thin woody shell was peeled off, they were crunchy and reminded me of raw peanuts but were a bit larger and bone white. The seeds readily sprouted, grew rapidly, and produced their own flowers and then new seeds within just 2 years. Welcome to the tropics! Those first seeds produced several generations of trees which are now planted in the yards of my crew and many other places. And we still use the trees to reduce erosion where the slope is steep and these trees keeps us in nuts almost year-round. Not for sale, we just give them to locals just the way Milton did years ago."
"One striking feature of this species is that the trunk remains green for many years* and looks like it would be soft. But it withstands hurricanes up to a Category 3 or 4 with little damage, stabilizes the soil, likes very wet spots, tolerates drier sites and is suited to periods of submersion like many Amazon tree species. To add to this roster, it is probably in your nearby supermarket as an almost indestructible bonsai plant. Very hard to drown if given enough light. It is a pretty good house plant and dry air does little to it."
*I'll add that one of the reasons I think Ian's account likely includes both species is his description of the trunk. On Pachira glabra, Barwick notes: "It is ornamental, distinguished by...its bright green trunk, limbs and fruit".
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at January 15, 2010 5:00 PM
Comments
...or read recent comments on all BPotD Entries
Posted by: Sue in Bremerton at January 15, 2010 5:54 PM
Oh the first one is so beautiful - feathery, graceful - just exquisite. Great commentary - as usual!
Posted by: annie Morgan at January 15, 2010 6:46 PM
in friend ships fragrant garden
there are flowers of every hue
each with it's own fair beauty
and its gift of joy for you
joyful flower all dressed up and
ready to go out would a make a wonderful
mardi gras headpiece
thank you really the best photos
and a fine shareing write up
botony a day is my favorite place
Posted by: elizabeth a airhart at January 15, 2010 7:20 PM
a bird of paradise! thanks
Posted by: Quin at January 15, 2010 8:09 PM
... wow...what a great write up....keep it up...
Posted by: phillip at January 15, 2010 8:39 PM
You'd think a plant so all-around useful would be better known. And it's so beautiful too. Great photos.
The photos at that Panorama Fruit link in Puerto Rico made me want to go there. And the Hawaiian Tropical Plant Nursery link describes a lot of fruits and has photos for most of them. I bookmarked that.
Posted by: Wendy Cutler 
at January 15, 2010 8:54 PM
Nice plant. Can the fruit be eaten?
Posted by: SvenLittkowski at January 15, 2010 9:40 PM
The subjects of these photos are all so beautiful. And a very interesting write-up about these tree species.
What exquisite, stunning flowers.
And the nuts are also very appealing, in their texture, gradations of colour, veining. They remind me of a new litter of light-brown puppies, all snuggled up together in their plush bed.
Posted by: Mary Ann, in Toronto at January 15, 2010 10:23 PM
Nice photos Ian!!!
Posted by: Bryan at January 16, 2010 5:12 AM
Beautiful pictures of another plant I didn't know! And good info. Thanks!
Posted by: Chris at January 16, 2010 6:57 AM
Pachiras are a widely grown houseplant here in Seattle They are commonly called 'money tree', and now are almost impossible to get anymore without a braided trunk. The tree is thought to bring wealth into the home, and I've been told that the braided trunks serve to 'lock' it in - prevent the money from leaving the home, (this is just one saying).
It is unfortunate, because the tree has a lovely natural structure when not braided.
I have never had the opportunity to see one bloom, and what gorgeous blooms they are. Thank you, as always, for an informational and thoroughly enjoyable entry, and the lovely photos.
Posted by: lisa at January 16, 2010 10:00 AM
Sorting out species and common names for these two, I've discovered, is a daunting task.
Posted by: Island Jim at January 16, 2010 12:03 PM
Once I decided to send these photos to Daniel, I hit a snag. The Latin names and what to call them. So I took the easy way out and let a botanist run them down. Daniel did this leg work and said I might want to amend or add to my entry based on what he has written. At first, I did not. I had, over the years, taken many photos of these trees and realized one year that we had two completely different flowers coming from what looked like but were apparently not identical trees. Milton had offered me seeds from his Pachira on several occasions but mentioned that there was another species next to the ones where I had collected most of my seeds called Pachira insignis. Not being sure of the Latin is, to me, quite unsettling so I contacted the international nomenclature people who said there is no ruling body dictating what is the final word. And I kept getting corrected by people from around the world about my plant ID. So let me submit this so we can share my confusion. Using Google image search, enter Bombax glabra. You see white flowers, green pod. Enter Pachira glabra and you see mostly the same and it is equated with P. aquatica. Now enter Bombacopsis glabra and your head should begin to smoke behind the ears. But I am not quite done yet. Enter Pachira insignis; you see both flower types, both pod types. In "Brazilian fruits and cultivated exotics" ( Harri Lorenzi, Luis Bacher and others) from the Instituto Plantarum, they clearly dichotomize these into white flower, green pod = Bombacopsis glabra, syn. Pachira glabra and red flower, brown pod = Pachira aquatica, syn. Bombax aquaticum, B. macrocarpum, B. rigidifolium, Carolinea macrocarpa and Pachira pustilifera. On my farm, we have both flowers but so far, only green pods. To finish this wordy entry, enter Carolinea macrocarpa and the same photo I sent in reappears, used without my permission by someone here:
http://forum.zira3a.net/showthread.php?p=127222
Notice the synonyms, in English, part way down. And enjoy the madness.
Posted by: Ian at January 17, 2010 5:27 AM
This is a great series of photos......thank you again. Linda
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lcmillerart/
Posted by: linda miller at January 17, 2010 7:36 AM
This is a wonderful site, I love all the images. Fantastic. Thank you!
Posted by: Janey Pugh at January 17, 2010 4:56 PM
Great entry today...
Posted by: Tyler at January 18, 2010 7:34 AM
couldn't understand why I wasn't getting the daily pictures after signing up! Thanks for letting me know!
Posted by: Bonnie fulp at January 20, 2010 2:00 PM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
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Botany Photo of the Day and associated images by UBC Botanical Garden staff are licensed under a Creative Commons License. Images and text by non-UBC contributors are copyright the respective photographers / authors (but often have Creative Commons licenses if contributed via Flickr).
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Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems within The University of British Columbia.
I like this one, a lot. Seems to be an all purpose tree. Very interesting facts.
Thank you.