Hymenaea courbaril L.

• Title

  Hymenaea courbaril L.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Hymenaea courbaril L.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Hymenaea Courbaril Algarrobo West Indian Locust Family Caesalpiniaceae Senna Family Hymenaea Courbaril Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 1192. 1753. A large unarmed tree, of tropical America, reaching maximum height of about 25 meters, with a trunk up to about 2 meters in diameter, often devoid of branches for most of its height; the bark is smooth, light gray, the stout branches spreading, the twigs and leaves smooth, the large, white flowers numerous, in clusters at the ends of branches. Its red, hard, tough wood, with specific gravity about 1.00 is valued in carpentry, for furniture, wheels, and cogs. The tree is widely distributed nearly throughout the West Indies, except the Bahama Islands, and ranges nearly all over continental tropical America; in Porto Rico and Vieques it inhabits moist or wet districts, mostly at lower elevations. Hymenaea (dedicated to Hymen, the God of marriage), is a genus established by Linnaeus in 1753, the species here described and illustrated being typical; altogether about 10 species are known, all of tropical distribution. The leaves are composed of 2, leathery, oblique leaflets; the individual flowers are borne on short stalks; the calyx has a short, bell-shaped tube, and 4, overlapping segments; there are 5, broad, stalkless petals, nearly alike, and 10, separate stamens; the ovary has a short stalk attached to the calyx-tube, the very slender style is topped by a small stigma. The fruit is a large, woody, few-seeded pod, which falls away without opening. Hymenaea Courbaril (aboriginal name) is a tree, of forests, plains and, hillsides, often isolated, and conspicuous by its large trunk. The leaf-stalk is slender; the 2, stalkless leaflets are oblong-lanceolate or oblong-ovate, pointed, from 4 to 9 centimeters long, very inequilateral; the oblong, finely hairy calyx-segments are about 15 millimeters long; the thin, dotted, elliptic petals are about as long as the calyx-segments; the white stamens about twice as long. The oblong, dark brown pod is from 5 to 10 centimeters long, somewhat compressed, roughened, the oblong seeds 2 or 3 centimeters long.