One Shot Only

[mrtree]

Okay here is one that should be hard. I only have this one photo from the Lancetilla Botanical Gardens in Honduras. The only clue I will give is its Genus and (part of) its common name is the same.

 

[Leon]

Geez, that's a pretty tough picture to identify anything from.

 

[sean_freeman]

Would the fruit/seeds from this treebe economically important? Is it normally found in the rainforest?

 

[mrtree]

I know its hard, the fruit/seed is of incredible economic importance and is found in the rainforest.

 

[sean_freeman]

Does the second part of the latin name (specific epithet) have a middle eastern connection?

 

[Mrsmorningwood]

Are you thinking along the lines of the nectar of life (just trying to keep the secretive thing going here)??

 

[Leon]

I see where you're going with this Sean. For what it's worth that plant is not natively found in a rainforest, even though it is now grown in previously rainforested areas throughout the tropics.

I suppose that could be it, but somehow it doesn't look quite right to me.

 

[mrtree]

No eastern connection that I can think of. I will let you stew for a while, I doubt you can get the species from the photo, so have to deduce the Genus and common name (for now).

I doubt it is the nectar of life thought I am sure an advertising exec might try that.

 

[sean_freeman]

Ah bugger, my mind was all in that direction, ok will have to stew on this during work today I think, but someone else will probably get it before I'm back online, so....my first quess and therefore the cryptic questions was Coffea arabica but after leons points I'm not expecting that to be correct.

 

[mrtree]

NO, on the right track though, though that being said I am not sure if Aussies use the same term Canadaians do, I realized Americans don't. Now that might help or really throw you off.

 

[sean_freeman]

Ok quick quess before I go to work theobroma cacao .

 

[mrtree]

Nope, close in when sense, but otherwise way off.

Go to work there has been enough drunken time off for Aussies this past weekend. Enjoy now, with McGrath gone and Symonds surely headed to jail after his celebration, the good times for sports is over. Will just have to enjoy hard ID quizzes instead.

 

[Mrsmorningwood]

Cola acuminata

 

[mrtree]

That is it. The cola nut tree.

Still used to flavour Coke-Cola and other colas; Coke has stopped using the cocaine portion of Erythroxylum (Coca)as a stimulant, but uses the "cleaned" leaves as a flavouring.

 

[Mrsmorningwood]

I like mine with a little splash of Citrus aurantifolia...Coca-Cola that is, not the other coca.

 

[jerseygirl]

DANG DUDES - with CO-COLA being right down the block from me too.

NOW if the clue was what too made atlanta famous - i might have taken a guess.

enjoy the trees you climb

jz

 

[Leon]

Jeez, that's the scrawniest cola tree I've ever seen.

Chewing on the seeds will give you a good caffeine buzz, but they sure are bitter.


Keep 'em coming mrtree!

 

[mrtree]

It is interesting that the Lancetilla Botanical Gardens is set in a wet tropical broadleaf forest but many of the trees look terrible. The are huge Garcinias, Durio, Nephelium, Swietenia and other large growing trees but the smaller trees look like crap, they have never taken off. The soils are a wet sticky clay muck. I think the cutter ants also play havoc.