Re: Mystery Canaries

I'll stick with likely to be Jacaranda. After a minute or two your
description of the fruit in combination with the winged seeds made me
think Jacaranda or at least Bignoniaceae.  If Mr. Ortega wants to add
that the flowers are a bluish, lilac or purple-blue color we can be
fairly sure. There is a formal description of the genus at:
http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/ven-guayana/bignoniaceae/jacarand.
html

At least one of the species described in that document has fruit about
2.75 inches long. MoBot gives the distribution as "Guatemala and the
Antilles south to northern Argentina; 49 species, 4 in Venezuela..."

Phil Bunch

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Longville" <tim.longville@BTinternet.com>
To: "medit-plants" <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2001 01:18
Subject: Re: Mystery Canaries


Many thanks to the folks who're trying to help on this, including the
several who've mailed me directly. Perhaps the most interesting
message (because the pod he describes so precisely is so precisely
what I received) was from Mr Ph-V Ortega. I'm sure he won't mind my
quoting what he said:

>>the pods that you describe as "pressed-together miniature
turtle-shells" are perhaps what I found in a park (originally the
gardens of a mansion) in a town near Barcelona, Spain - I thought that
what I found closely resembled an oyster shell - it was a hard as a
rock
and I had to pry it open with a screw driver, I think. It had an
irregularly undulated or slightly "gnarled" surface. ... The trees
were quite tall and stately. Since the gardens had originally belonged
to an immigrant who had made a fortune somewhere in Latin America,
probably Cuba, one would think he had brought the tree with him from
there.

Mr Ortega added that the tree had 'mimosa-like' finely cut foliage.
Since other people have quizzed me about the plant's foliage
(questions I couldn't answer, of course!), asking if it was 'finely
cut,' and suggesting that if it was the jacaranda solution might fit,
I re-examined my memory re the pods' overall size (in view of Ryan's
doubts, too!). Well, ok, maybe a sense of mystery = a tendency to
exaggerate, and memory rather than having the pods in front of me
doesn't help, so perhaps 1.5/2.25ins long rather than 3+ins!

In view of all of which, jacaranda it is??

And ricinus for my bean-like seeds in the prickly horse-chestnut-like
pods??

Mysteries for Christmas seem pleasantly appropriate. Here's to
particularly pleasant ones - mysteries and Christmasses - for all
Medit-Planters.

Tim
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