PlantPeers
Back to Catalog
Vatairea guianensis
Fabaceae FAMILY

Vatairea guianensis

Vatairea guianensis

Edibility
0/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The wood and fruits are poisonous[1]. This suggests that all parts of the plant are likely to be poisonous[PFAF]. The sawdust can cause allergies to woodmill workers[2].

Cultivation Details

HabitDeciduous Tree
Growth—

A plant of low elevations in the moist tropics, where it is usually found at elevations below 200 metres. Although many species within the family Fabaceae have a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria, this species is said to be devoid of such a relationship and therefore does not fix atmospheric nitrogen[3].

Propagation

Seed - Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Vatairea+guianensis>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]Fruits of the Guianan Flora — van Roosmalen. M.G.M. · Institute of Systematic Boyany, Utrecht University; Netherlands. · 1985 · ISBN 90-9000988-4 ↩︎Terse descriptions of over 1,700 species from the Guianas that bear fruits - not necessarily edible! Often mentions if the fruit is edible, plus gives brief description of habit and habitat.
  2. [2]Tropix 7 — CIRAD · http://tropix.cirad.fr/en ↩︎An on-line guide to the timbers of 245 species of trees.
  3. [3]Nodulation Plants in GRIN Taxonomy — United States Department of Agriculture · http://www.ars-grin.gov/~sbmljw/cgi-bin/taxnodul.pl?language=en ↩︎An online database listing plants that have either positive or negative reports on root and stem nodulation with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
  4. [4]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  5. [5]Medicinal Plants of the Guianas — DeFilipps, R. A.; Maina, S. L.; & Crepin, J. · Smithsonian Museum · http://botany.si.edu/bdg/medicinal/index.html ↩︎A down-loadable PDF document of a book in pre-publication awaiting illustration. An excellent, if rather terse, guide to the traditional medicinal uses of the plants of the region
  6. [6]Tropical Timbers of the World. Ag. Handbook No. 607. — Chudnoff. Martin. · USDA Forest Service. Wisconsin. · 1984 ↩︎Terse details on the properties of the wood of almost 400 species of trees from the Tropics.
  7. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎