Posts Tagged ‘fabaceae’
Member of family Fabaceae - Red Sand Pea
Posted by: The Lorax in: ● June 15, 2008
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Red Sand Pea, growing near Malchingui, Pichincha Province. This week is unofficially “plants that grow in sand” week; this member of the Fabaceae is found in the high-altitude sandy mesas of Northern Ecuador. Beyond this, I am able to find no information on it other than a designation for the family Fabaceae, the legumes. It grows as a low, vining groundcover in a very hot, dry, wind-blasted biome, primarily in sand soils, and is by definition drought-tolerant. The specimens I observed had very few, small, pinnate leaves, and had not yet produced fruiting pods.
Acacia horrida - Fiqui
Posted by: The Lorax in: ● May 25, 2008
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Fiqui tree, growing near Vilcabamba, Loja Province. Fiqui (pronounced FIKE-ee) are a member of the extemely large genus Acacia, and is but one of the more than 1200 species worldwide. It is distinguished from other acacias growing in Ecuador by its extremely long, red thorns, which can exceed 8 cm in length. Fiqui is a scrubby, tenacious, fast-growing tree that can reach heights of about 15 meters under ideal conditions. Like other acacias, it has a flattened, spreading canopy, and delicately pinnate leaves. The wood of Fiqui is extremely hard, and is often used in furniture making and as railings in house construction; the trunk is not straight enough to make it valuable as a timber tree. It is extremely drought-tolerant, and may shed its leaves during the dry season; it takes about 24 hours for the tree to produce new leaves after heavy rain. Propagation is by seed.
Fiqui, which is a much faster growing tree, is the main threat to Huilco repopulation efforts in southern Ecuador.
