Brazil, National flower?
jkirkbri at ASRR.ARSUSDA.GOV
jkirkbri at ASRR.ARSUSDA.GOV
Sun Jun 11 08:53:54 EST 1995
I was a professor of botany at the Universidade de Brasi'lia from 1979 to
1984. During that period I had the same question put to me by Dick
Eyde then in the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution. I
went around to various goverment offices in Brasi'lia, and I got the
following answers:
1) ipe^ amarelo was the flower national, unofficially, what ever that
means. Ipe^ amarelo is the common name for a large number of species of
Bignoniaceae.
2) rama de cafe' [a branch from the coffee plant] was the symbol of
governmental power in Brasil.
3) pau-brasil is officially the national tree. I have a copy of LEI N.
6.607 - de 7 de dezembro de 1978, Declara o pau-brasil a'rvore nacional,
instituti o Dia do Pau-Brasil, e da' outras provide^ncias. This short
law declares pau-brasil (Caesalpinia echinata Lam.) to be the national
tree of Brasil. This is an excellent choice because this is one proposed
origin for the name of the country, Brasil. It was also one of the very
first exports from Brasil to Europe. The bark of the tree was exported
to Europe for use as a red dye, its common name was pau-brasil, therefore
the place it came from was called Brasil. It was common in the Atlantic
forests, but it is almost totally extinct in the wild now. It is widely
cultivated in Brasil. A number of them are growing in Brasi'lia, but they
have to be watered during the dry season to do well.
Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr.
USDA, Agricultural Research Service
Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory
Room 304, Building 011A, BARC-West
Beltsville, Maryland 20705-2350 USA
Voice telephone: 301-504-9447
FAX: 301-504-5810
Internet: jkirkbri at asrr.arsusda.gov
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