Photo Post – Palo Borracho Tree

Buenos Aires has many fantastic trees – the coolest of which is easily the “gomero” or “rubber tree.” But the lesser-known “palo borracho” or “drunken stick” is also an amazing tree. Its sharp thorns – or espinas – can prove incredibly painful if you bump into them. They’re also rare and exceptionally cool to look at.

I came across this one while shopping at the outlet stores on Cordoba in Palermo Viejo. It’s located on the 4200 block of Cordoba, near the Ossira Outlet store on the west side of the street. More commonly known as a “Floss Silk Tree,” this thorny creation is technically known in the U.S. as a “Paneira” or “Chorisia Speciosa” tree. Details:

“Mainly evergreen but will go deciduous briefly when they flower. Oval shaped medium sized tree growing to 30 to 60 ft tall and 20 to 40 ft wide. Fast rate of growth when young then slows down. Beautiful flowering tree in fall with showy pink to rosy colored blossoms. Trunk is stout, green in color and usually is armed with thick, heavy spines. Leaves are palmately compound with long petiole. Five leaflets per leaf. Fruit is a large pod appearing in spring. Pod opens and emits cotton like material. Cotton is used as stuffing material for things like pillows. Tree may go deciduous in autumn or when temp goes below 27 degrees F.”

The City of Buenos Aires has a “tree search” engine that allows you to look up any tree in the city by its scientific name. You can also look up a tree if you know the street address of its location. See the search engine here.

Source: The Tropical Flowering Tree Society

*This is the first of many “Photo Posts,” a new feature on The Argentine Post that will entail brief posts centered around pictures taken in Argentina.

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