BOIS ROSE
RESPLENDENT BEAUTY OF THE FOREST
By Francis Morean
Saturday Express
February 24, 2001
page 47
Amateur naturalists often find difficulty in identifying most of our wild forest trees. Not so, however, with the bois rose, also known as mountain rose, palo rosa, or monta del rosa (brownea latifolia) which is an easily recognisable small (forest) tree and which is now in bloom in the understory of forests in North, Central and South Trinidad as well as in Tobago.
The local name bois rose alludes to its lovely flowers, as well as to its propensity to grow in the mountains of Trinidad and Tobago. It is not as commonly found at high elevations, though, where there is high rainfall as much as it is found at lower elevations where it thrives on drier, well drained soils.
Bois rose is familiar to hikers to Platanal, to the Upper Quare Valley and to the Heights of Aripo and Aripo Caves. The plants are covered with a luxuriant growth of epiphytes, especially "cocoa moss". The plant is also familiar to hikers who venture to the Marianne River, which flows through Blanchisseuse village. Several bois rose plants dot the river bank, and their blossoms provide a delectable feast to the Long-Billed Hermit Hummingbirds which frequent these forest streams and rivers.
At Louis D'Or and Arnos Vale Estates in Tobago, Bois Plants are also common along the stream banks.
Bois rose is most abundant in the limestone mountains at Tamana, Brigand hill and Cumaca. Bois rose plants are very common in South Trinidad along the coastal belt stretching from Erin to Guayaguayare.
But you can also find it sprinkled in the foothills of the Northern Range as for example near La Laja in the Arima Valley.
The plant blooms from January to March, when hundreds of flowers adorn the trees. Below, the ground is carpeted red with the fallen blossoms of flowers that have previously experienced their moment of glory. And that it is, for the understory of a forest with blooming bois rose is as thrilling a sight as our January's sky set alight by flaming immortelles. On a blooming bois rose tree can be found flowers at varying stages of development.
Each cluster of drooping flowers, with their luxuriant stamen looks like the frilled skirt of a flamenco dancer. The individual flower of each cluster is a tubular orange structure - 47 mm long and 3 mm wide. The length of this corolla excludes the short-billed humming birds from drinking its nectar.
On account of the beauty of bois rose it is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental tree. But it also has medicinal uses.
The flowers of bois rose are mucilaginous and a tea is prepared from them for treating coughs and colds. This tea aids in the removal of mucus from the bronchial passages. A tea prepared from the flowers is also used locally in treating menstrual pains.
The flowers are sometimes used for preparing a lovely claret wine. A decoction of the bark is very useful for women suffering with excessive bleeding which may be associated with fibroids, polycystic ovaries and other conditions. Like the flowers, the bark is slightly astringent.
The fresh bark is reputed to be most effective. Hunters drink its tea when in the forest and thus the bark is known as "hunters tea". Some hunters call it sassafras bark, although its quite different from the bark of sassafras officinale, which is also called sassafras but is imported from North America.
Fresh bois rose bark is also used by woodsmen as a styptic. Hunters or farmers who accidentally get cut while in the forest would strip a long section of the bark from the stem and use it it to tie the wound. The bark is very distinctive. It is usually smooth or slightly rugose, and peels in vertical grayish strips. It is often covered with lichens.
The fruit is a woody pod. The dried fruits and seeds are carved by local craftsmen into earrings and other handicraft items.
Finally, as if not to be outdone by the beauty of the flowers, the character of the bark or the distinctiveness of the fruit, the leaves of the plant are also very interesting. The young leaves form light purple drooping flushes, which are very attractive.
Look for this plant if you find yourself in the forest between May and, say, December. Any other time you won't have to look: bois rose will appear to you of its own accord.