Cats-Claw 



515 



I CATS-CLAW Pithecolobium Unguis-Cati (Linnaeus) Martius 

 Mimosa Unguis-Cati Linnaeus. Zygia Unguis-Cati Sudworth 



This small tree or straggling shrub inhabits sandy soils of southern peninsular 

 Florida and the Keys, and occurs southward throughout the West Indies into 

 tropical America; its maximum height is 8 meters, with a trunk diameter of 2 

 dm.; it is also called Long pod and Florida cats-claw. 



The branches are irregular and spiny, forming a fiat-topped tree. The bark 

 is about 6 mm. thick, shallowly fissured into 

 reddish brown plates. The twigs are slender, 

 angular at first, usually zigzag, brown to dark 

 brown, the straight, stiff stipular spines 15 mm. 

 long or less. The leaves are persistent, evenly 

 bipinnate; the slender leaf-stalk is 3 to 4 cm. 

 long, slightly grooved, with a large orbicular 

 gland at the end; there is only one pair of 

 2-foHolate pinnae on slender, glandular stalks 6 

 to 12 mm. long; the leaflets are membranous, 

 obHquely obovate or oval, 2 to 4 cm. long, 

 rounded or short-pointed, broadly wedge- 

 shaped at the base, entire or shghtly wavy on 

 the margin, Hght green and shining above, 

 paler beneath. The flowers appear from March 

 to September, in slender terminal or axillary 

 panicles of globose heads about 2 cm. in di- 

 ameter; calyx bell-shaped, 5-lobed, about 2 

 mm. long and about one fourth the length of 

 the smooth, sharp-pointed petals; the numerous purplish stamens are twice as 

 long as the corolla, their filaments united into a tube for half their length; ovar)- 

 stalked; style fihform. The fruit is compressed, 8 to 12 cm. long, 6 to 12 mm. 

 wide, much twisted and contorted, thick, leather\% long-stalked, rounded at the 

 apex, thickened at the margins, hght red-brown, at length sphtting through the 

 thickened margins; the seeds are irregularly obovate, somewhat compressed, 10 

 mm. long, dark brown and shining and partly surrounded by the enlarged bright 

 red ariloid fleshy stalk. 



The wood is ver}- hard, close-grained, bright red to purple, with bright yellow 

 sapwood; its specific gravity is about 0.90. The somewhat astringent bark has a 

 local reputation as a remedy for urinary disorders, on which account it is sometimes 

 called the Nephritic tree. 



Fig. 475. Cats-claw. 



