Dermatophyllum secundiflorum (Ortega) Gandhi & Reveal
Vernacular name: Texas Mountain Laurel, Mescal Bean
Species Name: Dermatophyllum secundiflorum (Ortega) Gandhi & Reveal
Family: Fabaceae
Habit: Evergreen shrub or small tree
Stem: Multi-branched woody trunk; bark grey-brown, rough with age; branchlets stout.
Leaf: Alternate, imparipinnate, 8–15 cm long; leaflets 7–11, elliptic to oblong, thick, leathery, glossy dark green.
Flowering: Spring.
Flowers: Dense pendulous racemes; flowers fragrant, violet to bluish-purple, papilionaceous; calyx 5-lobed, corolla of standard, wings and keel; stamens 10, ovary superior, monocarpellary.
Fruit: Woody indehiscent to tardily dehiscent pod 5–15 cm long, containing bright red hard seeds.
Uses
- Beans are used as a hallucinogens before being supplanted by peyote.
- All parts of it are highly poisonous. The consumption of a single seed is enough to kill an adult.
- D. secundiflorum is a popular ornamental plant due to its showy flower and orange seeds. The reddish wood it produces is potentially useful, but as yet has little commercial value.
- Plant is drought tolerant.
