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Lecythis minor
Lecythis minor, the monkey-pot tree, is a small to medium tree from northern South America, grown in warm regions as an ornamental and for its distinctive cup-shaped fruits. It needs a warm, humid tropical climate and is not a typical houseplant.
Lecythis minor, the monkey-pot tree, is a small tree with toxic seeds that occurs in South America.
The seeds are toxic, especially when consumed in large quantities. The toxicity is derived from the amino acid in the plant that is a selenium analog to cystathionine, through which selenium is stored in the seeds during reproductive growth. The seeds contain approximately 85% of the tree's total selenium in the form of selenomethionine. The seeds taste agreeable, but can induce nausea, anxiety, and giddiness, and can cause loss of hair and fingernails. Dickinson found that after consuming 300 to 600 seeds he had temporary loss of hair and fingernails. The toxicity can vary depending on the soil, as some evidence suggests that seed toxicity increases as the amount of selenium in the soil increases.
Lecythis minor is common in South America. It ranges from the Maracaibo lowlands of Venezuela to the northern coast of Colombia where it ascends the Magdalena and Cauca valleys. It was introduced in many other places in South America as well, from La Lima in Honduras to Soledad in Cuba. It occurs in dry, open, and disturbed habitats, where it grows as a small and many-branched tree. It can also be found in moister forests where it forms a taller, single-trunked tree. It grows especially well along rivers in tropical forests. The tree tolerates an annual precipitation of 9.1–22.8 dm (36–90 in), an annual temperature of 24.4–26.5 °C (75.9–79.7 °F), and a soil pH of 5.0 to 8.0.
It is cultivated as an ornamental tree in many places, such as the Summit Gardens in Panama. The nuts of the tree are collected when ripe, and the tree can produce fruit as young as 2 m (6 ft 7 in) tall. In indigenous medicine, the fruit is supposedly antiasthmatic and depilatory.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lecythis minor 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.
