Lysiloma (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) in Mesoamerica

Abstract

As part of a collaborative project with partners in Costa Rica and Honduras, the Oxford Forestry Institute (OFI) is currently preparing a sourcebook of priority agroforestry tree species for use by farmers and extension workers in Mesoamerica. The species selected for review have been chosen through consultation with farmers and local users throughout the region. As such, the sourcebook will provide information on the ecology and socio-economic aspects of use and cultivation of up to 150 dry and humid zone species where utility has been defined by farmer preference, for their role in farm-planting, ecological restoration and natural regeneration across the range of reforestation options (e.g. living fences, shelter trees, small blocks etc.). Species in the genus Lysiloma were consistently rated highly in the surveys (CorderoSalvado 2000) since they grow well on poor soils, set seed annually and have a variety of uses. Lysiloma (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) is a genus of small to medium-sized unarmed trees adapted to monsoon and desert climates in the New World tropics and sub-tropics. Most members of the genus are frequent components of degraded and secondary tropical dry forest, though the genus is also represented in savannah scrubland and in moist evergreen and semi-deciduous forest. Chiefly a Mexican genus, its range extends from the extreme southern United States (Arizona and Florida), through Central America as far south as northern Costa Rica, and eastwards into the Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas). It occurs on coastal dunes and on shallow limestone soils, to midelevation well-drained rocky sites up to 2000 m altitude, with annual rainfall ranging from 1000 2000 mm. The species in Mesoamerica (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama and Mexico east of the Isthmus of