Tachigalia versicolor is a suicidal neotropical tree (original) (raw)

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• Published: 18 August 1977

Nature volume 268, pages 624–626 (1977) Cite this article

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Abstract

WITHIN a year of flowering in Tachigalia versicolor Standl. and Wms (Leguminosae-Caesalpinoideae) the leaves drop, the fruit is released and the tree dies. Reproduction occurs synchronously at intervals of several years in this large, much-branched, canopy tree species, but not all of the large individuals in the forest canopy flower and die at once. The species is known from the evergreen and semi-deciduous lowland forests of Panama, south-east Costa Rica and north-west Colombia. Except for a brief mention1 of the Amazonian T. myrmecophila, I have found no previous reference to reproduction followed by death in Tachigalia (including Sclerolobium, an apparently congeneric taxon2,3), nor in any other large, branched, dicotyledonous tree. My preliminary observations in Peru suggest that this behaviour is characteristic of several of the other 56 species in this genus, most of which occur in the Amazon Basin.

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References

1. Rodrigues, W. A. Instituto Nac. de Pesquisas da Amazonia, Manaus, Serie Botanica, No. 14, 1–11 (1962).
2. Dwyer, J. D. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gdn 41, 223–260 (1954).
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3. Dwyer, J. D. Lloydia 20, 67–118 (1957).
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4. Schulz, J. P. Ecological Studies on Rainforest in Northern Suriname (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1960).
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5. Whitmore, T. C. Tropical Rain Forests of the Far East (Clarendon, Oxford, 1975).
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Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Biology, University of Chicago, 5630 South Ingleside Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60637
   ROBIN B. FOSTER

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FOSTER, R. Tachigalia versicolor is a suicidal neotropical tree.Nature 268, 624–626 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/268624b0

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• Received: 28 April 1977
• Accepted: 16 June 1977
• Issue date: 18 August 1977
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/268624b0

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