Gymnocladus dioicus
Gymnocladus dioicus
Safety & Hazards
The ripe seed contains hydrocyanic acid. This toxin can be destroyed by thoroughly heating the seed for at least 3 hours at 150°c[ 183 Title Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Publication Author Facciola. S. Publisher Kampong Publications Year 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9 Description Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world. ]. The seed contains saponins[ 222 Title A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants. Eastern and Central N. America. Publication Author Foster. S. & Duke. J. A. Publisher Houghton Mifflin Co. Year 1990 ISBN 0395467225 Description A concise book dealing with almost 500 species. A line drawing of each plant is included plus colour photographs of about 100 species. Very good as a field guide, it only gives brief details about the plants medicinal properties. ]. Although poisonous, saponins also have a range of medicinal applications and many saponin-rich plants are used in herbalism (particularly as emetics, expectorants and febrifuges) or as sources of raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry. Saponins are also found in a number of common foods, such as many beans. Saponins have a quite bitter flavour and are in general poorly absorbed by the human body, so most pass through without harm. They can be removed by carefully leaching in running water. Thorough cooking, and perhaps changing the cooking water once, will also normally remove most of them. However, it is not advisable to eat large quantities of raw foods that contain saponins. Saponins are much more toxic to many cold-blooded creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish and make them easy to catch[ K Title Plants for a Future Author Ken Fern Description Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips. ].
Botanical Description
Gymnocladus dioicus is a deciduous tree with an open, sparsely-branched, narrow, rounded crown; it usually grows 18 - 24 metres tall, though there are reports of trees reaching up to 33 metres. The bole usually forms branches from low down; it can be 60 - 100cm in diameter. The plant produces suckers and can form thickets in the wild[ 11 Title Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Great Britain. Vol 1 - 4 and Supplement. Publication Author Bean. W. Publisher Murray Year 1981 ISBN - Description A classic with a wealth of information on the plants, but poor on pictures. , 352 Title KemperCentreForHomeGardeningPlantFinder Publication Author Website http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/ Publisher Missouri Botanical Garden Year 0 ISBN Description Basic cultivation details, plant uses, habitat etc for several thousand species of plants, mainly from the temperate zone. , 1213 Title Southern Trees Fact Sheets Publication Author Gilman E.F. Website http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/department_envhort-trees Publisher University of Florida, IFAS Extension Year 0 ISBN Description A series of fact sheets on trees that can be grown in Florida. They can be downloaded from the Internet ]. The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of materials. It is sometimes grown on mine tips in order to restore the soil, and is often grown as an ornamental, the male form being favoured for this because it does not produce seedpods[ 352 Title KemperCentreForHomeGardeningPlantFinder Publication Author Website http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/ Publisher Missouri Botanical Garden Year 0 ISBN Description Basic cultivation details, plant uses, habitat etc for several thousand species of plants, mainly from the temperate zone. ]. Gymnocladus dioicus does not reproduce well in the wild and population numbers are dropping. The tree has many of the attributes of being a pioneer species and is probably a survivor from a time when megafauna would have eaten the seedpods and transported the unharmed seeds to a new location. There is no natural vector of dispersal for the seed of this tree nowadays, apart from water with which it is not totally well adapted. The tree is more or less restricted to floodplains in the wild, though where it is found at higher elevations it generally thrives but seldom regenerates there by seed[ 1484 Title The anomalous Kentucky coVeetree: megafaunal fruit sinking to extinction? Publication Oecologia (2009) 161:221-226 Author Zaya D.N.; Howe H.F. Website http://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1372-3 Publisher Year 2009 ISBN Description ].