A Neotropical Savanna

In my last post, I wrote of finding a tree with yellow flowers growing along a seasonal stream here at the edge of our property. The flower looked a little like the flower from the Scrambled Eggs tree (Cassia surattensis), as described in the books I have available. Unfortunately, the images I found on the web of flower itself looked somewhat different from the flower I had in my hand.

I’ve now learned, with a lot of help from a good friend and from a graduate student in Switzerland, that the tree is most likely Senna hayesiana.
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For the past couple of weeks I’ve been admiring the yellow flowers in a tree near the quebrada – the seasonal spring at the edge of our property. I’ve finally looked at it long enough and closely enough to believe it is a species of Cassia or Senna, but the number of stamens (4) suggest not. It looks very much like the tree known commonly as Scrambled Eggs, but it is definitely not the same species. Here it is, resting on the stone wall in front of the tree itself.

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As a group, cecropias (Cecropia spp.) are one of the most conspicuous genera of trees in the Neotropics….They are thin-boled, spindly trees with bamboolike rings surrounding a gray trunk. Their leaves are large, deeply lobed, and palmate, somewhat resembling a parasol.” (p. 71) Kricher, J., 1997. A Neotropical Companion: An Introduction to the Animals, Plants, and Ecosystems of the New World Tropics (2nd ed – 1999), Princeton University Press, 451 pp.

From my kitchen window, I see a cecropia tree. From my bathroom window, when I take a shower, I see a cecropia tree. From the end of my driveway, when returning home, I see a cecropia tree. The cecropia tree, more than any other, reminds me that I’m in the tropics.

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It’s mid-rainy season but we’ve had hardly any rain for the past week. Just fog in the afternoon, sometimes accompanied by a little drizzle. As a result, walking along a dirt road in the early afternoon here gives the feel of a dusty summer day in the states.

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