• Acacia, Bull's Horn (Acacia collinsii)
• Amapola (Bombax ellipticum)
• Balché (Lonchocarpus)
• Balsam-pear (Momordica charantia)
• Calabash-trees (Crescentia cujeta)
• Cecropias (Cecropia peltata)
• Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra)
• Ciricote (Cordia dodecandra)
• Coconut Palm
• Jacaratia (Jacaratia mexicana)

• Mammillaria Cactus, Gaumer's
• Mangroves
• Mangrove, Red
• Mexican Ponytails (Beaucarea)
• Mistletoe, Tropical
• Poinsettia, Wild
• Palm, Thatch (Sabal yapa)
• Piich, the Ear Tree (Enterlobium cyclocarpum)
• Spiny Cucumbers (Cucumis anguria)
• Su-tut (Helicteres guazumifolia)
• "Tree Cotton"

THORNFOREST/SCRUB OF THE NORTHWEST

Thorn forest occurs in several places in Mexico, not just in the Yucatan. Along the Pacific coast of southern and central Mexico as far south as Acapulco there's a lot, and pockets of it appear in Tamaulipas and Veracruz. Wherever it appears in Mexico, members of the Bean Family, the Leguminoseae, are foremost among the woody plants, and these trees and bushes usually bear spines and/or thorns. The main Bean-Family genera are Acacias, Caesalpinia, Cassia and Mimosa.

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THE BEAN FAMILY, the Leguminoseae

Bean Family members are such common, remarkable trees that we have a special page here.

THE CACAO OR CHOCOLATE FAMILY, the Sterculiaceae

Bay Cedar, called Pixoy in Maya, is Guazuma ulmifolia. With its simple leaves with serrated margins the tree looks more like a stunted elm than a cedar. I guess the name cedar derives from the fruits, which look vaguely like the green, roundish cones of junipers, which in some places are called cedars. You can see three green, spiky fruits on the branch at the right. By mid dry-season, around January, this tree gradually loses its leaves, exposing slender branches adorned with heavy crops of those spherical, greenish, bumpy fruits about the size of cherries. The fruit's flesh isn't bad tasting but there are so many seeds that it's hardly worth a human eating them. Animals, particularly livestock, just love them. In many places it is the most abundant "weed tree." Cut or burn a field, let it grow back, and the main tree appearing among the weeds will usually be this one.

THE FIG FAMILY, the Moraceae

Strangler Figs are such common, remarkable trees that we have a special page here.

THE SOAPBERRY FAMILY, the Sapindaceae

Huaya is this tree's Maya name, and I can't find an English name for it. It's Talisia olivaeformis. Its once-compound, somewhat leathery leaves look like the leaves of North American ash trees, except that the leaves arise singly at a twig node, not in twos, as among ashes. The tree grows naturally from Mexico to Colombia, but is often planted in Central America for its edible fruit. The fruit is yellow or brown, about an inch in diameter and a little longer than that, with a large stone and thin, orange-colored, juicy pulp. Naturally wildlife loves the fruit, as do certain people.