Andira inermis (W. Wright) Kunth ex C. DC.

• Title

  Andira inermis (W. Wright) Kunth ex C. DC.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Andira inermis (W.Wright) Kunth ex DC.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Andira inermis Moca Angelin Tree Family Fabaceae Pea Family Andira inermis Humboldt, Bonpland and Kunth, Nova Genera et Species Plantarum 6: 385. 1823. Andira jamaicensis Urban, Symbolae Antillanae 4: 298. 1905. While the flowers of this valuable timber tree have the normal structure of those of the Pea Family, the fruit is remarkably different, being nearly globular, fleshy, and falls to the ground without opening. Excepting the Bahama Islands and the northern Lesser Antilles, it inhabits nearly all of the West Indies, and ranges on the continent from southern Mexico to Brazil. The tree is frequent in Porto Rico, growing from sea-level up to 750 meters elevation, or higher. The reddish-yellow, hard, strong and durable wood, sometimes called Bastard Mahogany has various uses, including construction, canes, boats, and handles of implements; its specific gravity is about 0.8. Cabbage bark is another name for this tree. Andira (a Brazilian name) consists of about 15 species of tropical American trees; the genus was established by the French botanist Lamarck in 1783. Their once-compound, alternate leaves have an unequal number of untoothed leaflets. The rather small flowers form large clusters, mostly at the ends of branches; the nearly bell-shaped calyx is minutely 5-toothed, or without teeth; the standard petal is nearly orbicular, the wing-petal, and those of the keel, oblong; the 10 stamens are more or less united by their filaments; the ovary is usually short-stalked, the style short and incurved, the stigma small. The characteristic, round fruit contains only 1 seed. Andira inermis may reach a height of 20 meters; the bark is gray, and narrowly fissued, the twigs and flower-clusters hairy. The leaves are from 20 to 40 centimeters long, with from 7 to 13, lance-shaped or oblong, smooth, short-pointed, leaflets from 5 to 8 centimeters long. The clusters of flowers are often as long as the leaves, the individual flowers nearly stalkless; the calyx is hairy, 4 or 5 millimeters long; the pink or purple petals are from 10 to 15 millimeters long. The nearly globular fruit is greenish, from 2 to 4 centimeters in diameter, the outer layer fleshy, the inner woody.