Sebastiania pavoniana

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Sebastiania pavoniana
Mexican Jumping-bean (4697560519).gif
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Genus: Sebastiania
Species:
S. pavoniana
Binomial name
Sebastiania pavoniana
(Müll.Arg.) Müll.Arg., 1866 [1]
Range of Sebastiania pavoniana.png
Range of Sebastiania pavoniana
Synonyms [2] [3]

Sebastiania pavoniana is a species of tree in the spurge family [4] [5] native to Mexico [1] [6] [4] [7] and northwest Costa Rica. [3] It is the 'bean' part of the Mexican jumping bean, despite not being a legume like true beans. [5] The 'jumping' is provided by the larva of the jumping bean moth ( Cydia saltitans ). [8] [6]

Contents

Name

The term 'Mexican jumping bean' usually refers to the seeds that have been attacked by moth larvae, but the entire plant is also called a 'Mexican jumping bean.' [5] [4] [9] It was difficult to determine the species of plant responsible for the novelty item at first, as the C. saltitans larva leaves the seed sterile. [8] In addition, a related plant Sapium biloculare (syn. Pleradenophora bilocularis ) also has jumping seeds [6] and is also commonly called 'Mexican jumping bean.' [9] [10] [11] However S. pavoniana is the species most commonly sold as curios. [11]

In Spanish, it is called semillas brincadores ('jumper seeds'), [6] or simply brincador ('jumper'). [4] [5] Other Spanish names include palo de flecha ('arrow wood') and yerba de flecha ('arrow herb'), but it is not used to create or poison arrows. [12] In Mayan it is called túbucti. [4] The Aztecs call it mincapatli (or miccapatli [12] ) which means "herb of death," [13] but the name is understood as 'seeds against death' and not as causing death. [12] The Yaqui named the seeds echimu-chechepete (seeds that jump). [13] [12] The seeds are called wurmiger Kaffee in German. [12]

Johannes Müller Argoviensis when he originally described the species first placed it in Gymnanthes sect. Stenogussonia, [1] but the species was later transferred to Sebastiania .

The specific epithet pavoniana might derive from the Latin pavon ('peafowl'). [14] However neither the flowers nor fruit are peacock blue or any other shade of blue, but more of a greenish yellow. The seeds do have a spot that might abstractly resemble the eyespot on a peacock's tail feathers. The most likely etymology honors José Antonio Pavón Jiménez, from whose collection the species was originally described. [1] [7]

Description

S. pavoniana is a slender tree or large shrub that grows up to 10–12 metres (33–39 ft) tall. [5] The trunk diameter at breast height is 6.7–10.1 centimetres (2.6–4.0 in). [15] Initially it can resemble Excoecaria indica , but the female calyx is eglandulose (lacking glands) inside. [1]

The branches have subterete twigs with leaves that are up to 8 cm long by 31⁄2 cm wide, but often smaller. [1] The leaves are membranous, [7] fuscous, and glabrous. [1] The leaf shape is oblong-ovate [7] to oblong-subelliptical. [1] The base is obtuse, with the apex shortly cuspidate-acuminate. [1] [7] Margins are bluntly crenate-serrate. [1] [7] Petioles are short, [7] about 8 mm long. [1]

Spines are shorter than the leaves, about 3-51⁄2 cm long. [1]

Bracts are broadly ovate, subtruncate, and lacerate-denticulate. [1] [7]

The plant is monoecious, and thus has both male flowers and female flowers on the same individuals. [15] Female flowers have a calyx with sessile laciniae. [1] [7] The ovary is appressed, broadly ovate, apiculate, and denticulate. [1] [7] The style column is very short. [1] [7] Sepals of male flowers are subulate and entire. [1] Male flowers have short pedicels with younger ones subsessile. [1]

S. pavoniana has cryptic fruit [16] with hard capsules. [1] Each fruit has three sections. [8]

Distribution

S. pavoniana is native to northwest Costa Rica [3] in Guanacaste Province, [15] and Mexico, [4] [1] [7] [3] [6] including the states of Baja California Sur, [5] Puebla, [5] [1] Sonora, [5] Jalisco, [5] and Veracruz. [1] [5] Specimens have also been found in Belize. [17] It is one of the most common trees of the Tropical dry broadleaf forest, [5] [18] [4] especially in late-succession forests as it is shade-tolerant. [15] It can be found growing at 275–925 metres (902–3,035 ft) in elevation. [5] It typically grows in arroyos or other riparian zones. [18]

Ecology

S. pavoniana flowers in both March [5] and June through August. [5] [18] The pollination syndrome is entomophily (insect-pollinated). [15]

Fruiting occurs mainly from the start of the summer wet season in July. [5] White-headed capuchins (Cebus capucinus) eat the fruit of S. pavoniana, [16] as does Cydia saltitans. [19] Occasionally military macaws (Ara militaris) will also eat the fruit. [20]

The leaf phenology is late-drought deciduous. [18]

The ello sphinx ( Erinnyis ello ) also feeds on S. pavoniana, and in turn can be parasitized by the braconid wasp Microplitis figueresi . [21]

Use by humans

Besides the seeds selling as novelty items, the Yaqui grate the unpeeled (and unparasitized) seeds turning them into flour which is baked into a loaves for feast days. [13] [12] The chuculi-buahuame, [12] or 'bread of hunger,' as it's called, is thought to provide a boost of energy. [13] An American entrepreneur in Havana once tried to sell the flour mixed with chicle to make an energizing gum, but was stopped over concern for accidentally introducing the moth to the island of Cuba. [12]

It is not known if this is a true pharmacological effect or a placebo effect, hoping that the observed jumping vigor of the seeds is transferred. [13] If a true biological effect is taking place, it would be similar to chewing coca leaves or drinking very strong coffee. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Mexican jumping beans are seed pods that have been inhabited by the larva of a small moth and are native to Mexico. The pod is usually tan to brown. They are from the shrub Sebastiania pavoniana, often also referred to as "jumping bean". However, they are not related to actual beans, but rather to spurges. The beans are considered non-toxic but are not generally eaten. In the spring, when the shrub is flowering, moths lay their eggs on the shrub's hanging seedpods. When the eggs hatch, tiny larvae bore into the immature green pods and begin to devour the seeds. The pods ripen, fall to the ground and separate into three smaller segments, and those segments are called Mexican jumping beans. As the tiny larvae inside curl up and uncurl, they hit the capsule's wall with their heads – and the bean jumps. They move more as temperatures rise, the larva eats away the inside of the bean and attaches itself to the inside of the bean with silk-like thread.

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References

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  14. ↑ Griffith, Chuck (2005). "Dictionary of Botanical Epithets". Dictionary of Botanical Epithets. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018. pavonius pavonia pavonium peacock like, blue or having an eye pavo pavon noun/m a peacock
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  16. 1 2 Melin, Amanda D.; Fedigan, Linda Marie; Hiramatsu, Chihiro; Kawamura, Shoji (22 September 2007). "Polymorphic color vision in white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus): Is there foraging niche divergence among phenotypes?" (PDF). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 62 (5): 663. doi:10.1007/s00265-007-0490-3. ISSN   1432-0762. OCLC   437741616. S2CID   13839857 . Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  17. ↑ Dwyer, John D.; Spellman, David L. (April 1981). "A List of the Dicotyledoneae of Belize". Rhodora. 83 (834): 161–236. ISSN   0035-4902. JSTOR   23311007. OCLC   19880140. S. pavoniana Standl. D 12402, 12572
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  19. ↑ Baker, Ed; Kitching, Ian J.; Beccaloni, George W.; Whitaker, Amoret; Dupont, Steen; Smith, Vincent S.; Noyes, John S. (2016-12-13). "Sebastiania pavoniana". HOSTS (Data Set). Natural History Museum. doi:10.5519/0060767 . Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  20. ↑ Puebla-Olivares, Fernando; Salcedo-Hernández, Janitce Elizabeth; Figueroa-Esquivel, Elsa Margarita (2018). "El habillo ( Hura polyandra ) en la dieta de la guacamaya verde (Ara militaris)" [The possum wood ( Hura polyandra ) in the diet of the Military Macaw (Ara militaris)](PDF). Huitzil, Revista Mexicana de Ornitología (in Spanish). 19 (2): 166. doi: 10.28947/hrmo.2018.19.2.323 . ISSN   1870-7459. OCLC   7586687537 . Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  21. ↑ Janzen, D. H.; Walker, A. K.; Whitfield, J. B.; Delvare, G.; Gauld, I. D. (April 2003). "Host-specificity and hyperparasitoids of three new Costa Rican species of Microplitis Foerster (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Microgastrinae), parasitoids of sphingid caterpillars" (PDF). Journal of Hymenoptera Research. 12 (1): 51–72. ISSN   1070-9428. OCLC   815681518. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 December 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  22. ↑ Humphreys, Kim; Darling, D. Christopher (21 August 2013). "Not looking where you are leaping: a novel method of oriented travel in the caterpillar Calindoea trifascialis (Moore) (Lepidoptera: Thyrididae)". Biology Letters. 9 (5): 20130397. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0397. ISSN   1744-957X. OCLC   5145587411. PMC   3971676 . PMID   23966594.
  23. ↑ Marshall, Michael (18 August 2014). "Zoologger: The secret hop of the Californian flea seed". NewScientist. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
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