Geoffroea decorticans

Geoffroea decorticans
	Geoffroea decorticans
Systematics
Order :	Fabales (Fabales)
Family :	Legumes (Fabaceae)
Subfamily :	Butterflies (Faboideae)
Tribe :	Dalbergieae
Genre :	Geoffroea
Type :	Geoffroea decorticans
Scientific name
	Geoffroea decorticans
	( Gillies ex Hook. & Arn. ) Burkart

illustration

blossoms

Bark of an older specimen

Geoffroea decorticans is a tree in the legume family from the subfamily of butterflies from southern to western South America . From Argentina , Paraguay , Uruguay , Bolivia , central to northern Chile and Peru . It occurs up to an altitude of 3000 meters and is known as Chañar .

description

Geoffroea decorticans grows as a deciduous and thorny , relatively slow-growing, drought-resistant tree up to about 12 meters high. The trunk diameter reaches up to 40-60 centimeters but is usually thinner. The plant produces new shoots from the roots, often several meters from the mother plant, and can form a thicket . The brownish, thin bark is in older specimens in strips, flaking off shreds, underneath the new one is green.

The alternate or tufted, stalked leaves are usually pinnate unpaired with up to 13 opposite to alternate leaflets . The slightly leathery and short-stalked to almost sessile, entire-margined leaflets are up to 3 inches long and 0.8 inches wide. They are ovate to oblong, elliptical or obovate. At the top they are rounded to truncated or indented. The young leaves are hairy whitish and then bald. The thorns are up to 4 inches long. The stipules are sloping.

Geoffroea decorticans is protogynous , i.e. female. Axillary and racemose , short inflorescences are formed. The small, yellow and fragrant, hermaphrodite, stalked to about 1–1.5 centimeters long butterfly flowers have reddish and streaky sap marks on the flag. The bell-shaped, small calyx with short tips has whitish hairs. The petals and the 10 stamens are in the typical shape of the butterfly flowers. The upper and single-chamber ovary is finely hairy. There are nectaries .

There are small, oval to round, light brown to dark orange-and mostly bald, fleshy, to about 1.5 to 4.5 centimeters, one- to two-seeded, weak two-piece stone fruits (rare in legumes) formed.

use

The sweet fruits are edible and can be consumed raw, they taste like gingerbread. They are similar to those of the Chinese jujube . Mostly they are soaked and processed into a kind of molasses (arrope). Or then ground and fermented, an alcoholic drink (aloja) is made from it. B. used in milkshakes. Aloja is also made from the fruits of other legumes such as Prosopis alba , Prosopis nigra, and Otholobium glandulosum in Chile and northwestern Argentina. A light, non-fermented variant of this is añapa .

The seeds are also edible.

The bark and leaves are used medicinally.

A dye for textiles can also be obtained from the bark.

The wood is hard and heavy, it is used for some smaller applications.

literature

Fanny C. Juarez, Lazaro Novara: Fabaceae - Tribu 14. Dalbergieae. In: Aportes Botanicos de Salta - Flora Series, 3 (15), 1995, pp. 1-13, ISSN 0327-506X , online (PDF) at Repositorio de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Ambientales del Noroeste Argentino.
Joseph H. Kirkbride, Charles R. Gunn, Anna L. Weitzman: Fruits and seeds of genera in the subfamily Faboideae (Fabaceae). Vol. 1, Technical Bulletin Number 1890, USDA, 2003, pp. 262 f.

Web links

Commons : Geoffroea decorticans - collection of images, videos and audio files

Geoffroea decorticans at Useful Tropical Plants.
Geoffroea decorticans in CABI Invasive Species Compendium.
Geoffroea decorticans at Chilebosque.
Geoffroea decorticans near Chile Flora (pictures).

Individual evidence

↑ GE Wickens: Ecophysiology of Economic Plants in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands. Springer, 1998, ISBN 978-3-642-08089-0 (reprint), p. 148.
^ Carl von Linné : Plant system. 13th Edition, Part Two, Raspe, 1777, p. 201, online at babel.hathitrust.org.
^ Matthew B. Johnson: Dryland Plants of the Monte and Chaco of Northwestern Argentina and Western Paraguay. In: Desert Plants. Volume 13, Number 2, 1997, pp. 18-30, online (PDF).
^ Kristberg Kristbergsson, Jorge Oliveira: Traditional Foods: General and Consumer Aspects. Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-1-4899-7646-8 , p. 212 f.

[1] GE Wickens: Ecophysiology of Economic Plants in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands. Springer, 1998, ISBN 978-3-642-08089-0 (reprint), p. 148.

[2] Carl von Linné : Plant system. 13th Edition, Part Two, Raspe, 1777, p. 201, online at babel.hathitrust.org.

[3] Matthew B. Johnson: Dryland Plants of the Monte and Chaco of Northwestern Argentina and Western Paraguay. In: Desert Plants. Volume 13, Number 2, 1997, pp. 18-30, online (PDF).

[4] Kristberg Kristbergsson, Jorge Oliveira: Traditional Foods: General and Consumer Aspects. Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-1-4899-7646-8 , p. 212 f.