11 Feb 500 years old Sapucaia in Bahia
One of the areas in which Canopée will carry out projects for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Avoided Forest Degradation (REDD) is a farm owned by Michelin French Tire Manufacturing, located in the southern region of Bahia state. When carrying out a field visit on the site, the forest engineer who is a member of Canopée, Gustavo Baêsso, had a great surprise when he found a sapucaia tree with more than 500 years of existence: “It took almost 5 hours of walking in a dense undergrowth forest to get to the place. This tree is in a place that has been cleared, probably several times, in the past, however, neither the indigenous, nor the Portuguese, nor loggers, nor residents had the courage to cut it down. There is only this tree with this size and age in all proximity!”.
Sapucaia, which can also be known as bucket-tree or monkey-cumbuca, was first described in 1829 (CAMBESSEDES, 1829) and is normally 20 to 30 meters tall, reaching up to 50 meters according to Mori and Prance (1990). Sapucaia can be used in several ways: its seeds, a type of chestnut, are appreciated for being extremely tasty, being also attractive to fauna, in addition, its woody fruit can be used as a container, just like a cumbuca, and, finally, its wood is still used for various purposes, its high density allows the production of musical instruments, civil construction structures, boats, among other materials such as weapons, tools and pickets..
Knowing all the history of deforestation in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, it is extremely interesting to think that this tree has existed in the south of Bahia since when the Portuguese first arrived in Brazil, and that, until today, it produces viable and vigorous seeds all the years! According to the people of the region, one of the factors that may have contributed to its preservation is a legend that says that this sapucaia is a sacred tree. For us at Canopée, it is an honor to be able to protect a tree so imposing and so venerated by the locals, these are the wonders that nature can offer us and that it is now up to us to preserve and care for!
Sources:
SOUZA, Alexandre et al. Conhecendo Espécies de Plantas da Amazônia: Sapucaia (Lecythis pisonis Cambess. – Lecythidaceae). Comunicado Técnico – Embrapa, novembro de 2014, Belém, Pará. Disponível em: COMUNICADO_TECNICO_250.indd (embrapa.br).
CAMBESSEDES, J. Lecythis pisonis. In: SAINT-HILAIRE, A. de; CAMBESSÈDES, J.; JUSSIEU, A. de. Flora Brasiliae Meridionalis, ed. 4, v. 2, n. 20, p. 377. 1829.
MORI, S.A.; PRANCE, G. T. The “sapucaia” group of Lecythis (Lecythidaceae). Brittonia, v. 33, n. 1. 70-80 p. 1981.