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Guaiacum officinale
Also called Commoner Lignum Vitae, Guaiac Tree, Common Lignum Vitae, Tree Of Life, Guaiacum, Guaiac Tree, Holly Wood, Tree Of Life, Guaiacwood
In Singapore: Lignum Vitae, Guaiac Wood (Grown in Singapore)
Guaiacum officinale is a small, very slow-growing evergreen tree from the Caribbean and northern South America, known for its extremely dense wood and resin. It is grown mainly as a garden or specimen tree in warm frost-free climates, and its key to growing it is full sun, well-drained soil and protection from cold.
Guaiacum officinale, commonly known as roughbark lignum-vitae, guaiacwood or gaïacwood, is a species of tree in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae, that is native to the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America.
Guaiacum officinale is one of two species yielding the true lignum vitae, the other being Guaiacum sanctum. Guaiac, a natural resin extracted from the wood, is a colorless compound that turns blue when placed in contact with substances that have peroxidase activity and then are exposed to hydrogen peroxide. Guaiac cards are impregnated with the resin and are used in determining whether stool contains blood. The heme portion of hemoglobin contains peroxidase and will catalyze the oxidation of guaiaconic acid when hydrogen peroxide is placed on the Guaiac card if blood is present in the stool.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Guaiacum officinale by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
