Friday, July 13, 2007

Pau mulato

The pau mulato trees (Calycophyllum spruceanum) get my attention as I pass through this low-land area close to the entrance of the Bosque. They love the extra water and humidity they get in the these baixadas (lowlands). Pau mulato is an iron-wood tree, which means that it is heavy, dense wood. Locals love to make charcoal out of it because it produces hot, long lasting coals. I read somewhere that this was the favorite wood for feeding the boilers of the old steamships traveling the Amazon. An rough translation of "pau mulato" is something to the order of the black man's, you know what. Another name for the tree is "escorrega macaco", alias monkey slide. When the red paper-like bark sheds from the trunk, it's so slick, even the monkeys can't climb up!

1 comment:

GingerV said...

Hello, these problems are not exclusive to your remote area. Three days of last week in Rio, I was unable to send email, or to download web sites but was able to receive email.... no logic to that. In Friburgo all of Friday and Saturday could recieve and send email but was unable to use my SKYPE (life line to the grandkids) which takes band width - a sure symptom of system overload. gingerv