Different Pachira species - identification?

[The Silent Seed]

I have Pachira aquatica, the usual one sold at most stores - but I also have a tree that was sold to me as a New Guinea Chestnut (Which is listed as being the same species) - but it is not. The leaves are identical, but the bark on this one is a light green, more like a Ceiba - and is not showing the spongy caudex - type trunk growth, but more a Ceiba habit. It has no spines, but has many black tubercules / pimples (Another difference between this plant, and Pachira aquatica.)

I also have a third plant sold as Pachira sp. from the Domincian Republic. Does anybody know which Pachira are from there?

Thanks in advance, hopefully!

Jude

[Alan_Tampa]

I know this but I have to check my notebooks. It is right on the tip of my tongue and driving me nuts. Actually, aquatica is the less common one but due to some.mix up like a million years ago the one most common in cultivation is called aquatica but isn't really. The big difference is flower color. White vs red, I think.

[Alan_Tampa]

I know this but I have to check my notebooks. It is right on the tip of my tongue and driving me nuts. Actually, aquatica is the less common one but due to some.mix up like a million years ago the one most common in cultivation is called aquatica but isn't really. The big difference is flower color. White vs red, I think.

[The Silent Seed]

Mine have not flowered - still in pots, and only about 3 feet tall, but will be interested in hearing what you come up with. Thanks!

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

There are several but the three I have seen are P. aquatica, P. glabra and P.insignis.

P.glabra is a smaller tree with green bark and the trunk is usually swollen for the first few inches in seedlings. Its leaflets are held out horizontally from the petiole and it has white flowers a little smaller than your hand. It has green, oblong fruit about 4 inches long, with edible seeds inside. Some call it the French Peanut.

P. aquatica is a medium to large tree with large red and white flowers, brown bark (except on new growth), and its trunk is not swollen at the base as a seedling. Its leaflets droop below the horizontal from the petiole. Fruit is a large football shaped woody affair with edible seeds inside.

P. insignis is very similar to P. aquatica but is a larger tree, with flowers up to a foot wide. It leaves are not as big and the leaflets are stubbier and almost rounded.

I like the insignis so much, I put it in my wedding vows: "Insignis and in health."

[Alan_Tampa]

Well can't find my notebooks. There something odd about the species id for plants in cultivation. That much I'm pretty certain of. One day I will find it, who knows when. I want to say it was mentioned in bill Whitman's five decades with tropical fruit, but I can't find that either. I'm a mess.