Bursera icicariba
Baill.
Elemi
wikimedia· cc-by
Wikimedia Commons - Alex Popovkin, Bahia, Brazil from Brazil
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Wikimedia Commons - Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
Description
A tropical tree in the Burseraceae family with leaves composed of 3-5 leaflets and white flowers.
This description is brief — help expand it
Edible Uses
The pulp of the fruit is eaten.
Traditional Uses
The pulp of the fruit is eaten.
This uses section is brief — help expand it
Known Hazards
Gumbo-limbo is a very useful plant economically and ecologically. It grows rapidly and is well adapted to several kinds of habitats, which include salty and calcareous soils (however, it does not tolerate boggy soils). Gumbo-limbo is also considered one of the most wind-tolerant trees, and it is recommended as a rugged, hurricane-resistant species in South Florida. They may be planted to serve as wind protection of crops and roads, or as live fence posts, and if simply stuck into good soil, small branches will readily root and grow into sizable trees in a few years. However, it has been noted in Central America that such posts do not produce a tap root, only side roots, thus questioning the real value of wind protection as those fence posts would not be so sturdy as a true, naturally occurring sapling. Gumbo-limbo wood is suitable for light construction. It is rather brittle, although the trunk is used in Haiti to make drums and as firewood. The tree's resin, called chibou, cachibou or gomartis, is used as glue, varnish, and incense. In Sarasota, Florida, gumbo-limbo trees have been used as street trees along a commercial portion of Boulevard of the Arts because the roots do not create problems for sidewalks and utilities. The arils are an important source of food for birds, including many winter migrants from North America. Local residents such as the masked tityra, bright-rumped attila, black-faced grosbeak (and on Hispaniola, the palmchat), are particularly fond of gumbo-limbo fruit, as are migrants such as the Baltimore oriole or the dusky-capped flycatcher. It is an especially important local food source for vireos, such as the red-eyed vireo, when ripe fruit are abundant. Many migrant species will use gumbo-limbo trees that are in human-modified habitat, even in settlements. This creates the opportunity to attract such species to residential areas for bird watching, and to reduce the competition for gumbo-limbo seeds in an undisturbed habitat that rarer local resident birds might face. Given the eagerness with which some birds seek out the arils, it may be that they contain lipids or other compounds useful to humans; in order for these to be exploited, however, they probably would have to be synthetically produced, because although the crop of a single tree may be very large (up to or even exceeding 15,000 fruits, translating into a raw lipid yield of more than 200 grams per harvest), individual seeds are small and cumbersome to harvest. Gumbo-limbo's rapid growth, ease and low cost of propagation, and ecological versatility makes it highly recommended as a "starter" tree in reforestation, even of degraded habitat, and it performs much better overall in such a role than most exotic species. The resin is used as a treatment for gout, while the leaves are brewed into a medicinal tea. Hexane extracts of the leaves have been shown to possess anti-inflammatory properties in animal tests. Gumbo-limbo bark is an antidote to Metopium brownei, also known as chechen tree, which can cause extreme rashes just as the related poison ivy that often grows in the same habitat.
Distribution
A tropical plant.
Where It Grows
Brazil, South America,
Notes
There are about 100 Bursera species. They are tropical.
References (3)
- Bircher, A. G. & Bircher, W. H., 2000, Encyclopedia of Fruit Trees and Edible Flowering Plants in Egypt and the Subtropics. AUC Press. p 69
- Hedrick, U.P., 1919, (Ed.), Sturtevant's edible plants of the world. p 140
- Martin, F. W., et al, 1987, Perennial Edible Fruits of the Tropics. USDA Handbook 642 p 84
