Cercidium floridum
Benth. ex A. Gray
Blue palo verde
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(c) Soumil, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Soumil, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
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(c) arisgongora, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) arisgongora, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
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(c) ShawnT Dash, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) ShawnT Dash, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Seeds, Pods, Leaves, Fruit, Flowers
The immature seeds and pods are eaten as a vegetable. The dried seeds are ground and made into breads, cakes, and drinks. The leaves are eaten as a green.
Where to Find It
It is a subtropical plant. They suit hot, dry areas. It grows up to 1,800 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.
Africa, America, Central America, Egypt, Mexico, North Africa, North America, USA,
Countries: Antigua & Barbuda, Angola, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Bahamas, Botswana, Belize, Canada, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Grenada, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Comoros, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, El Salvador, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Trinidad & Tobago, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, St Vincent, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
A small tree. It grows to 8-9 m high. It has a short thick trunk. The branches and bark are smooth bluish green. They are spiny. The flowers are golden yellow blossoms.
How to Grow
Plants are grown from seed.
Notes
Also as Caesalpinaceae.
Names & Synonyms
Cercidium floridum Benth. ex A. GrayCercidium torreyanum (S. Watson) Sarg.Parkinsonia florida (A. Gray) S. WatsonParkinsonia torreyana S. Watson
References (15)
- Beckstrom-Sternberg, Stephen M., and James A. Duke. "The Foodplant Database." http://probe.nalusda.gov:8300/cgi-bin/browse/foodplantdb.(ACEDB version 4.0 - data version July 1994) (As Cercidium torreyanum)
- Facciola, S., 1998, Cornucopia 2: a Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications, p 67
- FAO, 2012, Forest Genetic Resources Situation in Mexico. Final Report of Project TCP/ 3301 p 286
- Felger, R.S., Ancient Crops for the Twenty first century, in Rickie, G.A., (ed), 1979, New Agricultural Crops, AAAS Selected Symposium 38. Westview Press, Colarado. p 10
- Felger, R. S. 1980, Vegetation and Flora of the Gran Desierti, Sonora, Mexico. Desert Plants 2(2). Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. p 9
- Forest Genetic Resources Situation in Mexico, FAO 2012 Annex 15 p 286
- Grandtner, M. M., 2008, World Dictionary of Trees. Wood and Forest Science Department. Laval University, Quebec, Qc Canada. (Internet database http://www.WDT.QC.ca)
- Kunkel,
- Moerman, D. F., 2010, Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press. p 378 (As Parkinsonia florida)
- Pio-Leon, J. F., et al, 2017, Prioritizing Wild Edible Plants of potential new crops based on Deciduous Forest traditional knowledge by a Rancher community. Botanical Sciences 95(1): 47-59 (As Parkinsonia florida)
- Pl. wright. 1:58. 1852 (Smithsonian Contr. Knowl. 3, Art. 5)
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1999). Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Published on the Internet; http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ceb/sepasal/internet [Accessed 21st April 2011]
- Tozer, F., 2007, The Uses of Wild Plants. Green Man Publishing. p 61
- Uphof,
- Young, J., (Ed.), 2001, Botanica's Pocket Trees and Shrubs. Random House. p 225
