Description: Carao's trunk is usually straight and more or less cylindrical, with large trees having diameters approaching 60 cm. Branching is profuse and a dense, umbrella-shaped canopy is produced by them. Smooth pale gray bark, sometimes
marked
by inconspicuous encircling rings, is typical of the species.
Carao leaves are paripinnately compound, alternate, and
large (30 cm by 10 cm), each with about 16 pairs of leaflets.
Narrowly elliptical in form, the leaflets (4 cm by 1.5 cm) sport
some pubescence as well as a distinctive, two-toned coloration:
they are green above and maroon below. Foliage begins to fall
from the trees early in the dry season (January), leaving them
completely bare by March. The generation of new foliage resumes
in April. During Carao's short leafless period, the tree produces
abundant flowers (3 cm) in long axillary racemes. Their
unusual pastel shades of pink and orange engulf the entire crown
and create a welcome splash of color during the summer's driest
month. Each flower has five large, lavender sepals; an equal number
of rounded, peach colored petals; three large stamens (flanked
by various smaller staminal appendages; and a long, curved pistil.
The petals lack a uniform shape, the uppermost one being particularly
modified and having a yellow patch at its proximal end. Typical
in form to many Cassias, these blossoms are among the most attractive
that the tropical forest has to offer. Flowering occurs between
March and April. Fruits begin to grow immediately, as petals
are shed and the long pistils begin to expand. By June, they are
visible as green, shoelace-sized strings dangling below the new
foliage. They reach full size in September, and begin to mature
- turning brown and drying - during this month. Each woody, indehiscent
fruit is long (to 40 cm or more), wide (5-6 cm), cylindrical in
shape and contoured by elevated striations and ridges. Inside,
transversely oriented compartments with papery walls contain flattened,
round, tan-colored seeds (1.5 cm) as well as large amounts of
thick, strong-smelling, dark-colored honey. This fluid, whose
odor can be characterized as unpleasant at best (as the common
name implies), is easily detected when pods have fallen and broken
under the trees. Fruits persist in the crown all year, and only
occasionally become dislodged in what amounts to a slow and haphazard
process. Harvests - determined to be the time of fruit maturation
(and not fruit-fall) for this species - occur from September through
December. Seeds germinate immediately upon their liberation from
the thick, protective pods.
