Cecropia......

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

I was tooling around a nursery here on the island last year and came upon this tree with huge leaves, silver on the underside...it looked so tropical that i brought one home to The Flatts and planted it.

It is a fast grower, despite the spotty rain here.

Cecropia has about 100 members to the genus, so i don't know which one this is. From what i have have read it grows in Costa Rica and has a symbiotic relationship with ants, who colonize the plant....haven't seen that here, though.

It really looks good around palms, lush and tropical.

Rusty

[ariscott]

I like it... I have never seen that here either.

Regards, Ari

[Walter John]

I like it... I have never seen that here either.

Regards, Ari

I'd just like to know what trees you don't like Ari ?

[Really full garden]

These are native to my area and are almost weeds.I like them.I like to keep a few dried leaves in a bowl.They look very interesting.They can handle dry weather and wind despite their large size.

[simona]

Looks stunning! Never heard of it....so thanks for presenting.

Do you happen to know how cold hardy it is? I've found a site that states USDA Zone 9b and that would be quite well(it says: "Plant in nearly frost free areas"?

Has anyone tried seed propagation?

[popper1]

Fruits look like clusters of fingers filled with a sweet, jelly-like pulp that tastes of honey. They are filled with many tiny seeds. They are very slow to grow from seeds. C peltata & palmata are the most commonly grown. C peltata has leaves divided almost to the base while C. palmata are divided about half way.

[Eric in Orlando]

I like the leaves on that one, it looks like C. pachystachya. Usually C. peltata and C. palmata are the species grown. Did that nursery have more of this one?

We have several C. peltata growing here. I was curious about growing them as a "dieback" perennial. Since they grow so fast I was hoping they would come back from the roots and make a nice foliage plant. They are hard to get and seed is hard to find and germinate unless fresh. Then they planted one at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It grew to 30-40ft in quick time and it survived 27F in Jan. 2003 with only minimal dieback. I finally got some seedlings of C. peltata in spring 2005. Planted them out when they were a foot tall and within 2 years they were 20-30ft. Since then the height growth has slowed but they have branched and formed canopy. I didn't realize they could get above ground roots. Here is one here at Leu Gardens;

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Eric......Not sure if the nursery still has any...i would be happy to check. They only had 10 or so when i was there last. They had air layered the tree they had in order to get the plants in stock...they told me that they had been unable to collect seeds......evidently there is a specific pollinator that is required that doesn't reside in the sub-tropics. Maybe the ants who live in the tree in the tropics serve that role?

Popper1, i have tried the fruit, and i found it to be an acquired taste...not unpleasant, maybe it was the lack of visual appeal and texture.

Scottgt, the nursery told me the same thing about water, that they aren't too demanding....ever get a chance to shoot some pics of them in habitat?

Rusty

[Eric in Orlando]

Thanks for checking, that is a cool species.

The pollinators for C. peltata are at least in Miami. ours were seedlings from the trees at Fairchild. In the wild Cecropia are colonizers and quickly grow when gaps open in the forest canopy. They usually don't sprout in deep shade. I guess the C. peltata went crazy at Fairchild after Hurricane Andrew. I used to remember seeing lots of seedlings everywhere. When I couldn't find any trees I remembered seeing these at Fairchild so asked for some seedlings. Ours have flowered but I haven't found any seedlings yet.

[Really full garden]

Rusty, I will try to get some shots.I think these trees are a botanical icon for the New World Tropics.Birds love the seeds,especially toucans.

[popper1]

Fruit bats are huge eaters of the fruit also. It is really amazing the importance of frugivorous bats in tropical forests, both as pollinators and in the dispersal of seed.

[Alan_Tampa]

I have wanted to try one of these for a while, they look like fun, plus the foliage is very attractive.

Alan

[ariscott]

I like it... I have never seen that here either.

Regards, Ari

I'd just like to know what trees you don't like Ari ?

Not many, Wal... not many. I like most tree, great and small . You can call me the tree lady...

Regards, Ari

[amazondk]

These trees are one of the first colonizers in secondary forest regeneration. There are numerous varieities. Since they grow quite fast and in large thickets they provide shade for other plants that will eventually overgrow them forming the new forest tree cover. If you see them growing around here it will always be in some sort of area that has been disturbed. The toucans like to the eat the fruit in particular.

Here is a picture of one growing behind this jungle bungalo that I slept in a few years ago virtually in the middle of nowhere while checking out some forest. We were about 8 hours by motorboat from the nearest town. The walls of this house are made of stems from Iriartea exorrhiza which is commonly used in the region for walls and flooring. Not a high end appication but it works.

dk

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Eric, sent you a PM on availability.

Rusty

[amazondk]

Siince reading this thread I have been observing some of these trees growing around town. I guess the best classification would be weeds as they are a prime secondary vegetation colonizer. They grow to over 12 feet in about 6 months here. On the lot I used have in town I would have a forest of them to cut down every 6 months. Here are few I saw on the way across town back home yesterday. They sprout up all over Manaus in vacant lots and abandonded areas.

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Don, thanks a lot for those pics....it is an interesting plant, i may get another sometime. Even here in the subtropics it is growing very quickly.

Thanks again,

Rusty

[amazondk]

Rusty,

I see your plant has a silvery underside to the leaf. I have seen this kind of leaf a lot in the Atlantic Coast Forest in Rio and São Paulo. I have a very complete field guide to the Ducke Reserve, which is a large forest reserve bordering on Manaus. It does not list all the plants in our area as it is only one area and the forest changes from one place to another even close by. But, it has a good secton on the Cecropiaceae family of plants of which cecropia, Purouma and Coussapoa are members. In the reserve these members of Ceropia are present. C. sciadophylla, C. pupurascens, C. dischya, C. concolor and C. latiolba. Of the three genuses present in the Ducke reserve there are 23 species. The plants are often associated with ants. The Pourouma cecropiifolia is called Amazonian Grape, uva da amazonia, here. I also think they are intersting trees. And, they are very important in forest succession.

dk

[Eric in Orlando]

Thanks Rusty.

Don't the sloths eat the leaves of Cecropia?

[Eric in Orlando]

Here is the big C. peltata at Animal Kingdom. I noticed several recently planted young specimens.

[amazondk]

Eric,

Regarding sloths eating the leaves I will stop and ask one next time I see a sloth crossing the road. Actually I do run into sloths crossing the road. Unfortunately for sloths they do end up in the middle of the road many times and this is a real danger for the poor slow moving animals There are a lot of them over by the airport and I occaisionally see one on the road. They probably do eat the leaves.

dk

[joe_OC]

They remind me of Schefflera genus, but with more interesting leaves...

[edbrown_III]

Don,

Can you idea this one, I think its a Crecopia --- picture shot in Pantanal near Porto Joffre

Best regards,

Ed Brown