“ I have been thinking about experimenting with Guamuchil ( Pithecellobium dulce ) . It ’s not as nice as Icecream noodle but is drouth tolerant and grows well in Southern California . Thorny . ”
Pithecellobium dulceis a useful species .
World agroforestry.org outline the take after uses :
“ food for thought : Pods contain a pulp that is variously honeyed and acid , commonly white but also flushed . The seed and pulp are made into a sweet drink similar to lemonade and also eaten roasted or fresh . The source are used unused in curries in India . In Mexico , Cuba and Thailand , the pods are harvest and are customary sell on roadside stands .
Fodder : The cod and leaves pull together from hedge clipping are devoured by all livestock ; horses , caprine animal , camels , cattle and sheep . The presscake residue from source oil extraction may be used as blood line feed .
Apiculture : Flowers are confabulate by bees and yield good quality dear . Fuel : Fast - growing and coppices vigorously but due to its smokiness and low-pitched calorific value ( 5 177 - 5 600 kcal / kg ) , P. dulce wood is not of very high quality . In parts of India , it is plant and harvested to fuel brick kilns .
Timber : Sapwood is yellowish , and heartwood yellowish or scarlet - brown . The woods of P. dulce is unattackable and durable yet gentle and flexile . It is pretty strong and usually flat grained . It weighs about 590 kg / m³ , is easy to saw and finishes to a smooth surface . In south India , it is used to make drums , while in China , it is articulate to be used for matches . Itcan be used in construction and for posts . The short thorn and irregular , crooked growth make it less attractive for wood uses .
Gum or rosin : The wound barque transude a mucilaginous reddish - dark-brown gum somewhat like glue arabic .
Tannin or dyestuff : Tannin , used to soften leather , can be extract from the barque ( about 25 % ) , semen and leaves ; the barque is also used to dye fishnets a yellow color .
lipid : Seeds hold in a light-green oil ( 20 % ) , which , after refinement and bleaching , can be used for nutrient or in the making of soap and can substitute Bombay ceiba and ground nut cum oil .
Medicine : In Haiti solution and barque decoctions are taken by word of mouth against looseness of the bowels ; yield pulp is exact by word of mouth to block blood rate of flow in eccentric of heamoptysis . The germ succus is inhaled into the nostrils against chest congestion and pulverised seeds are ingested for national ulcers . The leaves , when enforce as a plasterwork , can relieve pain of genital sore and taken with salt can cure indigestion , but can also produce abortion . The root barque may be used to cure dysentery . The barque is used medicinally as a ferbrifuge . ”
We have this species – or a very similar one – growing locally . small fry here gather the pods and take in out the angelical physique from in spite of appearance . They ’re quite courteous .
LikeInga edulis , Pithecellobium dulcefixes nitrogen , grows rapidly and produce something edible . However , I ’m not sure the latter will decompose as quickly asIngadoes – especially in an waterless climate where the rate of disintegration is miserable . It also may not make the same level of folio biomass . Yet in Gary ’s surface area , Ingaisn’t get to arise anyhow as it ’s covetous for water supply . I have observed thatIngaspecies fly high alongside river and are absentminded in teetotal expanse .
The thorns are another drawback . I once set a Jerusalem thorn tree diagram ( Parkinsonia aculeata ) in my yard as a nitrogen - fixing food forest species .
See those thorns ? When you chop and drop down the offset to feed the soil , those sharp , crisp thorns last a long time . The Sir Henry Wood does n’t waste quickly and if you ’re walking through the yard barefoot and circumstantially step on one , they ’ll mess you up .
spine can be a welfare , of course of study , if you ’re keeping out intruders or wild animals – but in a chop - and - drop or alley cropping system , I would quash them if potential .
Other than the thorns , I thinkPithecellobium dulceis a good species and worth try in an skittle alley cropping system . If it ’s well - adapted to the climate , go with it . See how it works . perhaps the thorns wo n’t be a trouble – and I already screw the yield is good to eat .
Experimentation is the beneficial way to figure out what will ferment . Try it !
- Image at top byShreedhar Inamdar . Jerusalem thorn figure byForest and Kim Starr , cc permission .
