Caesalpinia spinosa
| Spiny holdback | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Genus: | Caesalpinia |
| Species: | C. spinosa |
| Binomial name | |
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Caesalpinia spinosa (Molina) Kuntze |
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Caesalpinia spinosa (Molina) Kuntze, commonly known as tara (Quechua), is a small leguminous tree or thorny shrub native to Peru.C. spinosa is cultivated as a source of tannins based on a galloylated quinic acid structure. This chemical structure has been confirmed also by LC-MS. It is also grown as an ornamental plant because of its large colorful flowers and pods.
Synonyms: Poinciana spinosa MOL., Caesalpinia pectinata CAV., C. tara, C. tinctoria HBK, Coulteria tinctoria HBK, Tara spinosa, Tara tinctoria. Common names: Spiny holdback; tara, taya, algarroba tanino (Peru).
C. spinosa is in the Fabaceae family, depending on the classification system, the Caesalpinioideae subfamily, and Caesalpinieae tribe.
C. spinosa typically grows 2–5 m tall; its bark is dark gray with scattered prickles and hairy twigs. Leaves are alternate, evergreen, lacking stipules, bipinnate, and lacking petiolar and rachis glands. Leaves consist of 3-10 pairs of primary leaflets under 8 cm in length, and 5-7 pairs of subsessile elliptic secondary leaflets, each about 1.5–4 cm long. Inflorescences are 15–20 cm long terminal racemes, many flowered and covered in tiny hairs. Flowers are yellow to orange with 6-7mm petals; the lowest sepal is boat-shaped with many long marginal teeth; stamens are yellow, irregular in length and barely protruding. The fruit is a flat, oblong indehiscent pod, about 6–12 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, containing 4-7 round black seeds, and will redden when mature.
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