My Tree is an Endangered Species...Now What?
When we moved, I lost my mango tree.
Granted, I almost loathed it near the end of mango season, when the yard
smelled of rotting mangoes (which smells a little like vomit,
actually). We have a tree in our new backyard. She has no less than 3
parasites on her. A strange rosemary-like one (with needle-like leaves),
a vine with a red-aggregate flower, and one I can only describe as
arboreal seaweed. I had seen odd things in the tree and assumed them to
be seed pods. Some have fallen and they are indeed seed pods!
Interesting ones too. Five lobed pods that split between the lobes. I
did not pry the dry, splitting one open to see what was in it, yet. I
also found a green one, not yet dry or cracking, and four out of five of
a completely broken one. I did not find the seeds that it would have
contained.
It took a little while to find it, but I identified the tree as West Indies Mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni).
The Wikipedia page has interesting information about it, including
everything from Christopher Columbus to pirates! OK, maybe not pirates,
but I think of them when I think of West Indies and the West Indies
Trading Company. I also must admit that knowing it is mahogany has had
the quote “my apartment smells of rich mahogany” playing in my head all
day.
It also tells me that the tree is
Endangered (on the IUCN Red List). This is all at once neat and gives me
cause for concern. If it really is a West Indies Mahogany, and it
really it endangered, I suddenly feel like I have an obligation to find
out how to cure it of its three parasites. Is this the duty of my
landlady (as we are but renting)? I am quite sure my landlady wouldn't
do anything about the tree, and so I feel like it's almost by duty
simply because I'm the only one connected to it that will care!
Swietenia mahagoni, commonly known as the West
Indies Mahogany, is a species of Swietenia native to southern Florida,
US, The Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands,
and Hispaniola. It is the species from which the original mahogany wood
was produced.
Swietenia mahagoni is listed as "Threatened" in the Preservation of Native Flora of Florida Act.
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