![]() © Photographs and text by Susan Leach Snyder (Conservancy of Southwest Florida Volunteer). Branches are used for making living fence posts.Ģ) Because the trees are wind resistent, they are recommended as hurricane-resistant trees to plant for wind protection for crops and roadways.ģ) Because of the gumbo limbo's rapid growth, it is recommended as a "starter" tree in reforestation areas.Ĥ) The wood is used in light construction and for firewood.ĥ) Because the wood is soft and easily carved, it is used to make carousel horses in the United States and voodoo drums (“tambours”) in Haiti.Ħ) The resin is used as glue, varnish, incense, salve for sunburn, and a treatment for gout.ħ) Oils in the bark are used as ointment for irritations caused by some poisonous plants.Ĩ) Young leaves are used as a dressing to take the pain out of wasp and bee stings, and brewed into a medicinal tea. ![]() Gumbo limbo trees are extremely useful to people:ġ) Branches stuck in the ground root and become new trees. Gumbo limbo trees are called tourist trees because the shiny, peeling, red bark resembles the skin of a tourist that has experienced a severe sunburn. Birds eat both the seeds and the seed coat. The fruit is a small three-valved capsule that encases a single seed, covered in a red fatty seed coat. The tree produces ripe fruit (shown below) year round, but the main fruiting season in Florida is in March and April. Resin and essential oil extracted from this species are used to make varnish, glue, incense, insect repellent, and medicine. Gumbo limbo loses its leaves for a brief period in February and March then, new leaves appear. Leaves are spirally arranged and pinnate with 7-11 broad, ovate leaflets. The trunk is typically 10° cooler than the outside air temperature the cause is unknown. It is a small to medium-sized tree that grows to 98 feet in height with a diameter of 3 feet at 5 feet above ground. ![]() Gumbo limbo ( Bursera simaruba) is native in tropical regions of the Americas from south Florida through Mexico and the Caribbean to Brazil and Venezuela.
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