Today I will talk about the botanical characteristics of the lecucaena, it is a tree with a slightly open and sparse crown, with many thin branches when it grows alone, it reaches different heights depending on the variety, it is possible to find trees from 5 to 20m high, with a diameter between 10 and 40cm.
▶ The bark is smooth or slightly fissured, brownish gray, the leaves are compound, alternate bipinnate, 9 to 20cm long, with 3 to 10 pairs of pinnae, with 3 to 5 pairs of leaflets each, the inflorescence are white in the form of capitulum, with 100 to 180 flowers softly scented, its fruits are flattened dehiscent pods 10 to 20cm long by 2 to 2.5 in diameter.
▶ Credits: wikiwand – [Image of Public Domain]
They are shiny, green in color when tender and turn brown when ripe and contain 15 to 25 seeds each, the seeds are flattened elliptical, shiny brown, 3 to 4mm wide, 6 to 8mm long and 2mm thick, also shiny brown in color when ripe.
The phenological phases are the stages that the plant goes through in terms of growth and development, although they are generally used as synonyms, they have different meanings, growth is defined as the irreversible increase in biomass", while development refers to "the morphological and/or structural changes that plants undergo throughout their life cycle.
There are stages in which there is development but no growth; germination and regrowth are examples of developmental processes in which plant reserves are used and, therefore, a decrease in biomass occurs, which means a (decrease). Both processes are related throughout the life cycle of the plant, and more specifically to the heat accumulated as a function of time, since as the plant grows it also develops.