Paubrasilia

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Paubrasilia echinata
Caesalpinia-echinata.jpg
An adult specimen in a park in Florianópolis, Brazil.
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Paubrasilia
(Gagnon, H.C.Lima & G.P.Lewis 2016)
Species:
P. echinata
Binomial name
Paubrasilia echinata
((Lam.) Gagnon, H.C.Lima & G.P.Lewis 2016) [2]
Synonyms [3]
  • Caesalpinia echinataLam. 1785
  • Guilandina echinataSpreng. 1825

Paubrasilia echinata is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. [4] [5] It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as Pernambuco wood or brazilwood [6] (Portuguese : pau-de-pernambuco, pau-brasil; [6] Tupi: ybyrapytanga [7] ) and is the national tree of Brazil. [5] This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used for making bows for stringed instruments. [5] [8] The wood also yields a historically important red dye called brazilin, which oxidizes to brazilein. [9]

Contents

The name pau-brasil was applied to certain species of the genus Caesalpinia in the medieval period, and was given its original scientific name Caesalpinia echinata in 1785 by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. [3] More recent taxonomic studies have suggested that it merits recognition as a separate genus, and it was thus renamed Paubrasilia echinata in 2016. [3] The Latin specific epithet of echinata refers to hedgehog, from echinus, and describes the thorns which cover all parts of the tree (including the fruits). [10]

The name of Brazil is a shortened form of Terra do Brasil, 'land of brazilwood'. [11]

Name

When Portuguese explorers found Paubrasilia on the coast of South America, they recognised it as a relative of an Asian species of sappanwood already used in Europe for producing red dye. The Portuguese named these trees pau-brasil, the term pau meaning wood, and brasil meaning reddish/ember-like. The South American trees soon dominated trading as a better source of dye. Such a vigorous trade resulted from the woods that early sailors and merchants started referring to the land itself as Terra do Brasil, or simply, the "Land of Brazil"; from this use, the present name of Brazil was derived.

Botanically, several tree species are involved, all in the family Fabaceae (the pulse family). The term "brazilwood" is most often used to refer to the species Paubrasilia echinata, but it is also applied to other species, such as Biancaea sappan and Haematoxylum brasiletto . The tree is also known by other names, such as ibirapitanga, from Tupi, meaning "reddish wood"; [7] or pau de pernambuco, named after the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.

In the bow-making business, it is usual to refer to some species other than Paubrasilia echinata as "brazilwood"; examples include pink ipê ( Handroanthus impetiginosus ), Massaranduba ( Manilkara bidentata ) and palo brasil ( Haematoxylum brasiletto ). The highly prized Paubrasilia echinata is usually called "Pernambuco wood" in this particular context.

Description

Map of the Number of Logs of Brazilwood Discovered in the Captaincy of Ilheus. Mapa do Numero das Toras de Pau- Brasil Descoberto na Capitania de Ilheus.jpg
Map of the Number of Logs of Brazilwood Discovered in the Captaincy of Ilhéus.

The brazilwood tree may reach up to 15 metres (49 ft) in height, and the dark brown bark flakes in large patches, revealing the lustrous blood-red sapwood underneath. The leaves are pinnate and each consists of between 9 and 19 small, leathery leaflets, which are broadly oblong in shape. [12] The flower stalk, or inflorescence, is also branched and contains between 15 and 40 yellow, strongly perfumed flowers, [12] which may be pollinated by bees. [12] The petals are usually yellow with a blood-red blotch. [12] The fruits are oval-shaped woody seedpods, measuring up to 7.3 centimetres (2.9 in) long and 2.6 centimetres (1.0 in) across; they hang off the branches and after the seeds are expelled, the pods become twisted. [12] The branches, leaves and fruit are covered with small thorns. [12]

There are some important differences between geographically distinct populations and it is thought that separate subspecies of the pau brasil may exist. [12] This tree may have some medicinal properties and has been used as an astringent and antidiuretic by local people; extracts have been tested as possible cancer treatments. [12]

Historical importance

An illustration of the tree leaves and flowers. Caesalpinia echinata Taub95.png
An illustration of the tree leaves and flowers.

Starting in the 16th century, brazilwood became highly valued in Europe [13] and quite difficult to get. A related wood, sappanwood, coming from Asia was traded in powder form and used as a red dye in the manufacture of luxury textiles, such as velvet, in high demand during the Renaissance. When Portuguese navigators landed in present-day Brazil, on April 22, 1500, they immediately saw that brazilwood was extremely abundant along the coast and in its hinterland, along the rivers. In a few years, a hectic and very profitable operation for felling and shipping all the brazilwood logs they could get was established, as a crown-granted Portuguese monopoly. The rich commerce which soon followed stimulated other nations to try to harvest and smuggle brazilwood contraband out of Brazil, and corsairs to attack loaded Portuguese ships in order to steal their cargo. For example, the unsuccessful attempt in 1555 of a French expedition led by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, vice-admiral of Brittany and corsair under the King, to establish a colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro (France Antarctique) was motivated in part by the bounty generated by economic exploitation of brazilwood. In addition, this plant is also cited in Flora Brasiliensis by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius.

Use in the music industry and excessive harvesting

Excessive harvesting led to a steep decrease in the number of brazilwood trees in the 18th century, causing the collapse of this economic activity. Presently, the species is nearly extirpated in most of its original range. Brazilwood is listed as an endangered species by the IUCN, and it is cited in the official list of endangered flora of Brazil.

A cello bow Bow Cello2.jpg
A cello bow

The trade of brazilwood is likely to be banned in the immediate future,[ needs update ] creating a major problem in the bow-making industry which highly values this wood. [14] The International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative (IPCI), whose members are the bowmakers who rely on pernambuco for their livelihoods, is working to replant the trees. IPCI advocates the use of other woods for violin bows to raise money to plant pernambuco seedlings. The shortage of pernambuco has also helped the carbon fiber and composite bow industry to thrive.

Replanting efforts

Restoration of the species in the wild is hampered by the fact that it is a climax community species, which will develop well only when planted amongst secondary forest vegetation. [15] Although many saplings have been distributed or sold during recent decades, that has led to the tree being planted in places outside its natural range, with somewhat poor results, such as what happens with brazilwood trees used for urban landscaping in the city of São Paulo, whose development and flowering is usually hampered by the colder environment. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pernambuco</span> State of Brazil

Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 13 million people as of 2022, it is the seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,067.877 km2, it is the 19th-largest in area among federative units of the country. It is also the sixth-most densely populated with around 89 people per km2. Its capital and largest city, Recife, is one of the most important economic and urban hubs in the country. Based on 2019 estimates, the Recife Metropolitan Region is seventh-most populous in the country, and the second-largest in northeastern Brazil. In 2015, the state had 4.4% of the national population and produced 2.8% of the national gross domestic product (GDP).

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Porto Seguro, is a city located in the far south of Bahia, Brazil. The city has an estimated population of 150,658 (2020), covers 2,287 square kilometres (883 sq mi), and has a population density of 52.7 residents per square kilometer. The area that includes Porto Seguro and neighbouring Santa Cruz Cabrália and Eunápolis holds a distinctive place in Brazilian history: in 1500 it was the first landing point of Portuguese navigators, principally Pedro Álvares Cabral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Captaincies of Brazil</span> 1534–1549 Portuguese hereditary fiefs of Brazil

The Captaincies of Brazil were captaincies of the Portuguese Empire, administrative divisions and hereditary fiefs of Portugal in the colony of Terra de Santa Cruz, later called Brazil, on the Atlantic coast of northeastern South America. Each was granted to a single donee, a Portuguese nobleman who was given the title captain General.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">France Antarctique</span> French colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1555-67)

France Antarctique was a French colony in Rio de Janeiro, in modern-day Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio. The colony quickly became a haven for Huguenots, and was ultimately destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567.

Fernão de Loronha, whose name is often corrupted to Fernando de Noronha or Fernando della Rogna, was a prominent 16th-century Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, of Jewish descent. He was the first charter-holder (1502–1512), the first donatary captain in Brazil and sponsor of numerous early Portuguese overseas expeditions. The islands of Fernando de Noronha off the coast of Brazil, discovered by one of his expeditions and granted to Loronha and his heirs as a fief in 1504, are named after him.

<i>Biancaea sappan</i> Species of legume

Biancaea sappan is a species of flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is native to tropical Asia. Common names in English include sappanwood and Indian redwood. It was previously ascribed to the genus Caesalpinia. Sappanwood is related to brazilwood, and was itself called brasilwood in the Middle Ages.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Name of Brazil</span>

The name Brazil is a shortened form of Terra do Brasil, a reference to the brazilwood tree. The name was given in the early 16th century to the territories leased to the merchant consortium led by Fernão de Loronha, to exploit brazilwood for the production of wood dyes for the European textile industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brazilin</span> Chemical compound

Brazilin is a naturally occurring, a homoisoflavonoid, red dye obtained from the wood of Paubrasilia echinata, Biancaea sappan, Caesalpinia violacea, and Haematoxylum brasiletto. Brazilin has been used since at least the Middle Ages to dye fabric, and has been used to make paints and inks as well. The specific color produced by the pigment depends on its manner of preparation: in an acidic solution brazilin will appear yellow, but in an alkaline preparation it will appear red. Brazilin is closely related to the blue-black dye precursor hematoxylin, having one fewer hydroxyl group. Brazilein, the active dye agent, is an oxidized form of brazilin.

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The "Pernambuco" interior forests is an ecoregion of the Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Biome, and the South American Atlantic Forest biome. It lies in eastern Brazil between the coastal Pernambuco coastal forests and the dry Caatinga shrublands of Brazil's interior.

Pau Brasil National Park is a national park in the state of Bahia, Brazil. It preserves a remnant of the Atlantic Forest biome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Rio de Janeiro</span> History of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Several years after the Portuguese first explored Brazil, French traders in search of pau-brasil reached the rich area extending from the Cape Frio coast to the beaches and islands of Guanabara Bay, the economic and, above all, strategic importance of which was already well-known.

C. echinata may refer to:

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<i>Pleroma mutabile</i> Brazilian evergreen tree

Pleroma mutabile, synonym Tibouchina mutabilis, is an evergreen pioneer tree with an open crown, native to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, mainly at the Serra do Mar zone, in the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, and Santa Catarina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seasonal semideciduous forest</span> Type of forest

The seasonal semideciduous forest is a vegetation type that belongs to the Atlantic Forest biome, but is also found occasionally in the Cerrado. Typical of central Brazil, it is caused by a double climatic seasonality: a season of intense summer rains followed by a period of drought. It is composed of phanerophytes with leaf buds that are protected from drought by scales, having deciduous sclerophyllous or membranaceous adult leaves. The degree of deciduousness, i.e. leaf loss, is dependent on the intensity and duration of basically two reasons: minimum and maximum temperatures and water balance deficiency. The percentage of deciduous trees in the forest as a whole is 20-50%.

References

This article incorporates text from the ARKive fact-file "Paubrasilia" under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and the GFDL .

  1. ↑ Varty, N. (1998). "Paubrasilia echinata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 1998: e.T33974A9818224. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.1998.RLTS.T33974A9818224.en . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ↑ "Paubrasilia echinata". Flora do Brasil 2020 - Algae, Fungi and Plants. Institute of Research Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Gagnon, Edeline; Bruneau, Anne; Hughes, Colin E.; Paganucci de Queiroz, Luciano; Lewis, Gwilym P. (2016-10-12). "A new generic system for the pantropical Caesalpinia group (Leguminosae)". PhytoKeys (71): 1–160. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.71.9203 . ISSN   1314-2003. PMC   5558824 . PMID   28814915.
  4. ↑ The Legume Phylogeny Working Group (2017). "A new subfamily classification of the Leguminosae based on a taxonomically comprehensive phylogeny". Taxon . 66 (1): 44–77. doi: 10.12705/661.3 . hdl: 10568/90658 .
  5. 1 2 3 Lichtenberg, Silke; Huber-Sannwald, Elisabeth; Nehren, Udo; Reyes-Agüero, Juan Antonio (2019). "Use and Conservation of the Threatened Brazilian National Tree Paubrasilia echinata Lam.: A Potential for Rio de Janeiro State?". Strategies and Tools for a Sustainable Rural Rio de Janeiro. Springer Series on Environmental Management. pp. 205–219. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-89644-1_14. ISBN   978-3-319-89643-4. ISSN   0172-6161. S2CID   134437366.
  6. 1 2 "Paubrasilia echinata". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  7. 1 2 Navarro, Eduardo de Almeida (2013). Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil (in Portuguese) (1 ed.). São Paulo: Global. p. 522. ISBN   9788526019331.
  8. ↑ Alves, Edenise Segala; Longui, Eduardo Luiz; Amano, Erika (2008). "Pernambuco Wood (Caesalpinia Echinata) used in the Manufacture of Bows for String Instruments". IAWA Journal. 29 (3): 323–335. doi: 10.1163/22941932-90000190 . ISSN   0928-1541.
  9. ↑ Dapson, RW; Bain, CL (2015). "Brazilwood, sappanwood, brazilin and the red dye brazilein: from textile dyeing and folk medicine to biological staining and musical instruments". Biotech Histochem. 90 (6): 401–23. doi:10.3109/10520295.2015.1021381. PMID   25893688.
  10. ↑ Stearn, William (2004). Botanical Latin. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. ISBN   9780881926279.
  11. ↑ "Brazilwood: A Brief History". University of Minnesota Libraries. Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lewis, G.P. (1998). Caesalpinia: a revision of the Poincianella-Erythrostemon Group. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens.
  13. ↑ Dodge, Cameron J. G. (2018). "A Forgotten Century of Brazilwood: The Brazilwood Trade from the Mid-Sixteenth to Mid-Seventeenth Century". e-Journal of Portuguese History. 16 (1): 1–27. doi:10.7301/Z0VH5MBT.
  14. ↑ Smithsonian, April 2004, cover story
  15. ↑ Cf. Backes, P. & Irgang, B., Mata Atlântica: as árvores e a paisagem (Atlantic Reinforest: its trees and landscape), Porto Alegre, Paisagem do Sul, 2004, page 228
  16. ↑ Cf. Árvores de São Paulo —O pau-brasil está frutificando na cidade, Ricardo Cardim 15 December 2009 blog entry; "Coisa rara no clima paulistano, as inúmeras árvores de pau-brasil (Caesalipinia echinata) plantadas pela cidade estão frutificando abundantemente." (in exceptional circumstances, however, brazilwood may flower in São Paulo) (in Portuguese)

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