About Dermatophyllum secundiflorum (Ortega) Gandhi & Reveal
Dermatophyllum secundiflorum is an evergreen species with pinnately compound leaves. Its leaflets are small, roughly spatulate, quite thick, and waxy to the touch. It rarely grows a single straight trunk, and its bark is smooth except on the oldest specimens. It grows slowly, reaching up to 15 feet (4.6 meters) in height, with a crown diameter of up to 10 feet (3.0 meters). Extremely fragrant purple flowers, that smell like grape soda, grow in large clusters during March and April. These flowers are followed by 4-inch (10 cm) pods that hold deep orange seeds. This species is well-adapted to arid and semiarid habitats, and is most commonly found in riparian zones. D. secundiflorum is a popular ornamental plant, valued for its showy flowers and orange seeds. It produces reddish wood that is potentially useful, but currently has little commercial value. Some Native American tribes once used this plant's beans as a recreational drug, before the beans were replaced by peyote. This plant is psychoactive, but it is also extremely toxic because it contains cytisine, a bicyclic alkaloid chemically related to nicotine. Consuming just one of its seeds is enough to kill an adult human.
