Guanacaste
Enterolobium Cyclocarpum
Enterolobium Cyclocarpum
Enterolobium cyclocarpum is commonly known as Guanacaste, Caro Caro, or the Elephant-Ear Tree, but is also referred to as Devil's Ear, Earpod Tree, Parota, Orejón, Huanacaxtle, and Conacaste. It is also the national tree of Costa Rica. Guanacaste is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is native to tropical regions of the Americas, from Central Mexico south to northern Brazil and Venezuela. It has large proportions, an expansive, often spherical crown, and peculiar shaped seed-pods. This tree is a widely recognized species because of the amplitutde of it, especiallly in the Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, where it is cherished for the shady relief it provides from the intense sun.
The Guanacaste tree can grow to be 25-35 metres tall and have a trunk up to 3.5 metres in diameter. The bark is light grey colour, with prominent dark reddish-brown vertical cracks. In young trees these cracks are closer together. and their junction lends a characteristic reddish hue to the bark of Guanacaste saplings. Older samples often display bark that is broken, chipped or scarred.
The Guanacaste tree can grow to be 25-35 metres tall and have a trunk up to 3.5 metres in diameter. The bark is light grey colour, with prominent dark reddish-brown vertical cracks. In young trees these cracks are closer together. and their junction lends a characteristic reddish hue to the bark of Guanacaste saplings. Older samples often display bark that is broken, chipped or scarred.
Surprisingly, after the decline of the blossom, there is no immediate obvious fruiting activity. Instead, nine or ten months pass before small, green pods first appear high in the crown by December. They grow to their full size by February and start to ripen in March, which is a full year after the flowering had stopped. Fruit ripening lasts from March to April, as the green pods turn brown in the Guanacaste crown and are slowly shed. Strong, healthy trees will produce large crops nearly every year. In June, Guanacaste seedlings can already be seen, sprouting in the moist soil of the early rainy season.