Quararibea funebris (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Quararibea funebris (La Llave) Vischer

Family: Bombacaceae

Synonyms

• Lexarza funebris La Llave,
• Myrodia funebris (La Llave) Bentham.

Vernacular names

• Flor de cacao, rosita de cacao, madre de cacao (Sp)

Distribution

From central Mexico to north-western Costa Rica. Occasionally cultivated there and elsewhere.

Uses

The dried flowers provide a highly pungent spice, rather suggestive of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) in odour. In Mexico this spice is used to flavour "pozonque” or "tejate”, a thick, frothy, aromatic beverage made with chocolate, finely ground maize meal and water. The Aztecs called the flowers "cacahoaxochitl” rivalling the biting capsicum peppers in pungency. The spice never became popular outside Mexico, although the spicy odour is very persistent and strong. The tree provides a good quality wood and the flowers and fruits are used in local medicine to control fevers and to alleviate menstruation pains. It also has ornamental value.

Observations

• Tree, up to 25 m tall; trunk up to 30 cm in diameter, smooth and slightly fluted; branches verticillate, diverging horizontally from trunk with upper half drooping.
• Leaves alternate, simple, entire; petiole 7-27 mm long; blade obovate to elliptical, 8-40 cm × 3-13 cm.
• Flowers solitary or few together; pedicel 1-1.5 cm long; calyx infundibuliform, irregularly lobed, 1-2 cm long, persistent and accrescent (up to 2.5 cm length) in fruit; petals 5, spatulate, 1.5-4 cm long, white when fresh, sepia-brown when dried, moderately to densely pubescent; staminal column cylindrical, 1.5-3.5 cm long; style filiform, 1.5-3.5 cm long, stigma capitate.
• Fruit drupaceous, broadly ellipsoidal to slightly obovoid, 2-3 cm × 1.5 cm, 1-2-seeded; exocarp green but densely brown haired.

Major constituents isolated from the flowers are the odour principle 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone, the alkaloid funebrine, the aminolactone 3-amino-4,5-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone and the amino acid 2S, 3S, 4R-4-hydroxyisoleucine.

Q. funebris occurs in moist to wet primary lowland and highland forest, up to 1600 m altitude. After sowing it takes 5-6 years before the tree starts flowering. In Oaxaca, Mexico, it flowers all year long but most abundant in the rainy season. In South-East Asia it is potentially of interest as a spice, as ornamental and for its wood.

Selected sources

• Alverson, W.S., 1988. A new subspecies of Quararibea funebris (Bombacaceae) from Nicaragua. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 74: 919-922.

• Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaftlicher und gärtnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of agricultural and horticultural plants in cultivation (without ornamentals)]. Schultze‑Motel, J. et al., editors 2nd edition, 4 volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1998 pp.

• Raffauf, R.F. & Zennie, T.M., 1983. The phytochemistry of Quararibea funebris. Botanical Museum Leaflets Harvard University 29: 151-158.

• Rosengarten, F., 1977. An unusual spice from Oaxaca: the flowers of Quararibea funebris. Botanical Museum Leaflets Harvard University 25: 183-202.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen