Tree of the Week: The Carrotwood Tree

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The Carrotwood Tree -- Cupaniopsis anacardioides

The carrotwood tree was deliberately introduced into Florida in the 1950s as a desirable, fast growing, easy to propagate, disease- and pest- resistant landscape plant adaptable to coastal conditions. And adapt it did.

Without pests or predators from its native Australia, Indonesia and New Guinea to keep it under control, it soon became obvious that the tree was aggressively invading disturbed and undisturbed lands, dunes, marshes and mangrove forests in Florida and Hawaii, and that it even competed with other aggressive nonnative invaders such as the Brazilian pepper tree. Mockingbirds, fish crows, small mammals and running water spread the seeds. The tree is not overtly invasive in Southern California because of our drier climate.

The evergreen carrotwood gets is name from the orange inner bark tucked under the smooth medium-gray outer one. It grows moderately slowly to a dense, neat-looking, but not exciting 40 feet tall by 30 feet wide evergreen. The shiny, polished compound leaves carry six to 12 leathery leaflets, with the last two leaflets forming a pair. Tiny yellow flower clusters produce woody capsules that split open to reveal three black-marble size seeds covered with a yellow-red crust. Some trees bear few fruits; others are loaded and may produce abundant seedlings. The tree gets by on little or a lot of water, good or poor soil, and it will take saline conditions.

-- Pieter Severynen

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