Monday, August 04, 2008

Paricá seeds

This paricá tree (Schizolobium parahyba) is loaded with seed pods, which should start falling soon. There is one seed in each pod. Click on image to get a better view of the pods.

2 comments:

Barry said...

An odd thing about Schizolobium: one study of a group of trees in Belize found them to be genetically identical:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/departments/botany/news-events/newsletter/archive/issue5/students/index.html

Those who think that one Schizolobium looks pretty much like any other may be closer to the truth than they know - at least in Belize. A preliminary analysis of the genetic diversity in the species using a multi-locus fingerprinting technique (AFLP) reputedly with a high discriminatory power, failed to distinguish between populations. Individuals separated by several kilometres in the Chiquibul Forest and on either side of the Maya Mountains, were found to be identical. This rather surprising result will be confirmed using other molecular markers now being developed, as there are few published studies of tree species with such low genetic variation.

Steven Winn Alexander said...

> Ted, I seemed to have lost one of your comments on seedpods. The one on tento, as I best remember it. One thing I've noticed about tento seedpods is that they are really slow in releasing their seeds. Seems that there are always pods yet to throw the seeds out. Maybe it's nature's way of spreading it out.