Huge Corotú Falls Near Panama Canal Administration Building
The passage of time seems to have overcome the huge "corotú" tree, near the administration building of the Panama Canal. The tree, clearly at least one hundred years old, fell with a crash, but fortunately nobody was injured. The staff of the Panama Canal Authority proceeded to remove the tree. (TVN)
Editor's Comment: Enterolobium cyclocarpum. Family: Leguminosae. Common name: corotú. The corotú is a very large pasture tree. On big individuals, the trunk often forks near the ground, so the immensely wide crown almost touches the ground. In pastures and grasslands in the Pacific slope of Panama , the corotu is the dominant large tree. It can also be a major component of secondary forests, in which the forest recently regenerated from pasture. This tree is very common around Panama City , Parque Metropolitano, and all along the Canal all the way to Gamboa. The wood is of fine quality and is used for furniture and giant trunks are used for making dugout canoes (STRI). The corotú is one of the largest and most beautiful of the trees of the savanna. It is known in Costa Rica as the guanacaste and is the national tree of that country. It is also known as false mahogany, the earlobe tree, and the elephant ear tree, among other names.
