CENIZERO TREE (LEGUMINOSAE: PITHECELLOBIUM SAMAN) DELAYED FRUIT DEVELOPMENT IN COSTA RICAN DECIDUOUS FORESTS

Abstract

Pithecellobium saman (Leguminosae: cenizero) is one of several species of Costa Rican deciduous forest large trees that flower at the end of the dry season and then bear dormant tiny fruits through the following rainy season, to then abruptly enlarge and mature them during the first third of the next year's dry season. I postulate that this pattern of fruit development in P. saman minimizes the duration of exposure of immature seeds to parrot and insect seed predators, increases the tree's flexibility in the use of photosynthates accumulated for later fruit maturation, increases resource storage costs, and decreases the photosynthetic contribution that fruit and immature seeds can make to the parent tree's resource budget. These consequences imply that the fruiting phenology of P. saman, like that of other trees, is evolutionarily determined by its interactions with the habitat as well as by internal physiological factors.