There are many trees in the world that ooze sticky resin from their trunks. Sometimes the resin enfolds insects, even lizards.(1) The resin drips down into the ground, hardens, and over millions of years can turn into AMBER.

AMBER is transparent and jewel-hard. It can be a showcase for ancient insects. Scientists can examine insects encased in amber that are over 140 million years old.

One of the many trees in the world that produce resin which turns into amber is the Stinking Toe Tree (Hymenaea courbil). The resin of a Stinking Toe Tree or West Indian Locust encased the skull of an Anolis lizard in the Dominican Republic about 15 to 20 million years ago. Scientists were able to visualize, examine and photograph the skull by high resolution, computed X-ray tomography.(1)

Dominican amber, product of the Stinking Toe Tree, is a better medium for studying ancient creatures than the better known Baltic amber. Insects preserved in Dominican amber retain colour and details of internal anatomy. Insects preserved in Baltic amber are colourless dried husks.(2)

WHAT A PECULIAR NAME FOR A TREE! WHAT DOES ALL THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BATS?

Nectar drinking bats pollinate the night-blooming flowers of the West Indian Locust Tree. One of the nectar-drinking bats is the Pale spear-nosed bat.(3)

Pale spear-nosed bat pollinating West Indian Locust flower

Another bat which pollinates the West Indian Locust flower is the long-tongued nectar bat. Of course the mother bats breast-feed their pups with their own rich milk, but recent research by two German scientists, Wohl and von Helversen, has proved that in a captive environment mother bats supplement milk feedings with nectar feedings which they provide to their pups by mouth.

Mouth feeding is a rarely verified behaviour in bats other than the vampire bat. The scientists conjecture that for a nectar-feeding bat it can serve three purposes;

• it increases the pup's caloric intake and reduces the mother's energetic output;
• it might help the pup become adjusted physiologically to one of its future foods, nectar;
• it may help the pup to identify the source of one of its future foods, which could well be the nectar of West Indian Locust flowers.(4)

Long-tongued nectar bat; Glossophaga soricina

The white night-blooming flowers that bats pollinate mature into a fruit that looks like a big toe. Inside the skin of the fruit is a tasty pulp which smells bad. It tastes so good, you overlook the smell and just keep eating the pulp.

The smell doesn't bother people or the monkeys who eat the fruit or the "agouti",a tropical rodent, the size of a hare. If the agouti doesn't finish the fruit, it buries the remainder for another day, forgets where it is buried, and one day a young West Indian Locust tree may grow from that seed.(5)

The agouti itself is a tasty meal for other animals, and a major defense against being eaten resides in its two back feet. They are big and strongly muscled. The agouti, when surprised, can leap as much as 6 feet in the air from a standing position!(6)

WHERE DOES THIS TREE GROW?

South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.(7) One species grows in East Africa.(2)

COULD I EVER SEE RESIN OOZING OUT OF AN WEST INDIAN LOCUST TREE?

You could. You could buy yourself a holiday in Central America, reserve a spot in a tree house high in the branches of a West Indian Locust Tree, be lifted up in a bosun's chair and see the resin oozing out of the tree trunk on your way to the top. (8)

Be sure to go on your trip when the tree's flowers are in bloom. Then you might see bats drinking nectar and pollinating the flowers during the night.

If you have a chance to walk in the forest on your holiday, learn how to identify the West Indian Locust tree. When you find one, you may notice that the soil around the base of the tree has been disturbed. Great quantities of resin have been found at the base of some living and dead West Indian Locust Trees. This mined resin, or copal, is now becoming rare and very valuable.

THE TITLE MENTIONS VIOLINS. ARE VIOLINS MADE FROM WEST INDIAN LOCUST TREE WOOD?

Not that I know of, although it might be possible. The wood of the West Indian Locust Tree is beautiful. It is a reddish-orange colour, streaked with brown and has a golden sheen. It is used in all kinds of carpentry.(5) However, the resin from the tree could enhance the beauty of a violin because it is used in a fine violin varnish.(9)

A recipe for varnish often includes a resin. Copal, or the resin from certain trees, is used in some traditional varnishes. There are at least 50 different kinds of trees that produce copal. Copal from trees in the same genus as the West Indian Locust, Hymenaea, is highly regarded as a varnish ingredient, not only for varnishing violins but by artists who paint with oils. The copal product can be mixed with the palette colours for desirable effects and can also be applied to the painting when it is finished.(10)

Dwarf fruit bats

IF A TREE LIKE THE WEST INDIAN LOCUST HAS BEEN AROUND FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS, AND THE WOOD IS GOOD AND THE RESIN IS SO USEFUL, IT HAS PROBABLY BEEN IMPORTANT TO PEOPLE FOR A LONG TIME.

That is indeed a fact. It is known that the West Indian Locust tree was part of magic, love spells and wedding ceremonies. The bark, resin and leaves were and still are a source of scores of different kinds of local medicines for all kinds of human ailments. The resin was used to make incense used in purification and sanctification rituals and it may have been one of the incenses burned on top of Mayan pyramids.(6,7)

Indians used to take the whole bark off of a West Indian Locust tree and make a boat. They sewed the ends together and waterproofed the seams with a gum or resin, very likely from the same tree.(7)

Inside the fruit or bean, which can be over 6 inches long and 2+ inches wide, are from 2 to 6 big red seeds. Artists will split the seeds or sand one side flat and paint intricate scenes on the smooth surface.(6,7)

These paintings and necklaces made of the strung glossy beans are popular with tourists. The resin can be used to make jewelry. Of course, it is not as hard as the ancient amber that is millions of years old and it is not as valuable.

I'VE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW DENTISTRY FITS IN. MY GUESS IS IT HAS TO DO WITH THE RESIN. AM I RIGHT? IT IS STICKY, SO MAYBE IT IS USED TO HOLD DENTURES OR FILLINGS IN PLACE?

Good guess! You're right about the resin, a bit off on the application. A product called copalite made from the resin is sometimes used by dentists to coat a drilled out cavity before filling it. It is a sealant which desensitizes the area when the drilling has come close to a nerve. It can prevent infection and stops the filling material from being absorbed.(11) Copalite varnish can also be used to coat the outside of a tooth which is hypersensitive. The varnish reduces painful sensations. It is not permanent and will eventually wear off and have to be replaced. (12)

References:

(1)Polcyn, M., Rogers II, J.V., Kobayashi, Y., Jacobs, L.L., Computed Tomography of an Anolis Lizard in Domenican Amber:Systematic, Taphonomic, Biogeographic, and Evolutionary Implications. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 5(1) 30 August 2003; Palaeontologia Electronica, http://palaeo-electronica.org/2002_1/amber/issue1_02.htm

(2)Amber, Radio Broadcast, 23.2.05, BBC Radio 3

(3)New York Botanical Gardens Bat/Plant Databases http://www.nybg.org/botany/tlobova/mori/batsplants/database/dbase_main.htm

(4)Wohl, Saskia, von Helversen, Otto, Flower visiting bats (Glossophaga soricina)feed nectar to offspring, Abstract of Papers Presented at the 13th International Bat Research Conference, Mikolajki, Poland, 23-27 August 2004, Bat Research News, Volume 45:No.3, Fall 2004, page 167.

(5)Forest, Farm and Community Tree Network, Winrock International's Forestry and Natural Resource Management Program, Fact Sheet, 98-06, September 1998, Hymenaea courbaril; http://v1.winrock.org/forestry/factpub/factsh.htm

(6)Agouti, Wildlife Explorer, International Masters Publishers Ltd, London, 1999

(7)Duke, James A., Handbook of Energy Crops, 1983, Purdue University Center for New Crops and Plant Products, New Crop Resource Online Program, Crop INDEX; http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop

(8)Daytime Canopy Tree Platform Expedition - Costa Rica Tour; http://www.adventure-life.com/costa_rica/canopy_expedition.php

(9)Historical Oil Painting, Varnishes and Mediums; http://www.jamescgroves.com/mediums.htm

(10)Leif L. Luscombe, Violin Maker and Restorer, Resources - Varnish Glossary - Copal; http://www.violins.on.ca/luthier/vargloss.html

(11) Restorative Dentistry; http://ebook.asnanak.net/DentalSecrets/8.%20RESTORATIVE%20DENTISTRY.pdf

(12)Dr. M P. Daly, BDS, Personal Communication

Text and illustrations by Mary Louise Alley-Crosby who thanks Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle, President and Founder, Bat Conservation International, Austin, Texas, for permission to use his photographs of the dwarf fruit bats and the long-tongued nectar bat as source material.

Updated 7 March 2006

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