Sausage Tree (botanical series) Traditional Cache

The bignonia family (Bignoniaceae) is a fascinating tropical family containing many vines, trees and shrubs with beautiful, showy blossoms. Some of the well-known members of this family include cape honeysuckle (Tecomeria capensis), yellow bells (Tecoma stans), jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia), common catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides), desert willow (Chilopsis linearis), African tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata), and the golden and pink trumpet trees (Tabebuia chrysotricha and T. impetiginosa). Also in the family is the unusual calabash tree (Crescentia cujete) with remarkable cauliflorous fruits that develop directly from the main trunks and limbs. But the most unusual tree in this family is the South African sausage tree (Kigelia pinnata), with huge sausagelike fruits that hang down from the limbs on long, ropelike stalks. The positioning of the noctural blossoms below the dense branches and foliage makes them ideally suited for visits by night-flying bats and insects.

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