THREE INTERESTING TREES
There are 10 times as many kinds of trees growing in the tropics as grow in temperate zones. And due to the extreme conditions of heat, drought, and moisture which prevail at different times during the year in Panama, they are strikingly different from those found outside the tropics.
One of the most common trees in Madden Forest as well as throughout Panama is the "Cecropia"; it is also one of the most unusual. Its leaves are being shipped all over the world for use in dried flower arrangements. But one would have to shake the tree to discover that it is a vast apartment house for fierce Azteca ants which rush out of the tree and attack anything that might disturb it. The ants live inside the hollow stems of the branches and guard the tree from the leaf-cutter ants which would quickly denude the tree of its shapely leaves.
Indian Blowguns
The branches of the Cecropia are also hollow and are fashioned by certain South American Indians into blowguns.
Another tree common in Madden Forest Preserve is the Balsa, the weight of which is only 7 pounds per cubic foot, about half the weight of cork,making it one of the lightest woods in the world. Nearly everyone at one time or another has put together a model plane made of balsa or remembers it as the wood used by Thor Heyerdahl in the construction of the Kon-Tiki.
Balsa is the Spanish word for raft which has been one of the main uses of the wood since ancient times. The green wood is very heavy and spongy and will decay in a day or two if left on the ground after being cut. When the wood is dried, either by standing on end or placing in a kiln,
it is very light but tough and is of great value where strength is needed without much extra weight.
Ship Construction
It is often used in steamship construction as it provides excellent insulation due to its cellular nature, and saves hundreds of tons in a ship's gross weight.
Another tree in the forest is the Panama, unofficially the national tree of the Republic of Panama. Some persons believe that the country derived its name from this tree. Sometimes growing to a height of 120 feet, the Panama has large leaves. The flowers appear in clusters but have no petals. Instead there is a woolly outside and dark red and greenish color within. The fruit is a cluster of five pods 4 inches long containing large brown chestnut-like seeds.
The beginning root system at the base of the Panama tree makes it one of the most unusual looking trees in the tropics. Flat, wall-like extensions snake out from the trunk forming cubicles between the roots.
by: Virginia Richmond
Last update: June 25, 1997
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