Mora (plant)

Mora is a genus of large trees in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae of the legume family Fabaceae (or in some classifications the family Caesalpinaceae of the order Fabales).

There are six species, all native to lowland rainforests in northern South America, southern Central America, the southern Caribbean islands, and Hispaniola. These are large, heavily buttressed rainforest trees up to 130 ft in height (to 190 ft in the case of M. excelsa). The genus is particularly noteworthy for the exceptional size of its beans, which are commonly acknowledged to be the largest known dicot seeds, in the instance of M. oleifera being up to 7 in in length, 6 in in breadth and 3 inin thickness, and a weight of up to 2.2 lb. These very large beans develop out of tiny flowers with a pistel only one millimeter wide involving a  growth of over 2,000,000 fold. The beans of Mora spp. are edible if boiled, and are also the source of a red dyestuff. The species M. excelsa is one of the few rainforest trees to grow in pure stands.


 * Mora abbottii Britton & Rose &mdash; cola tree, coi, col (Caribbean)
 * Mora ekmanii (Urb.) Britton & Rose (Caribbean)
 * Mora excelsa Benth. &mdash; nato, nato rojo, mora (Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela)
 * Mora gonggrijpii (Kleinhoonte) Sandwith &mdash; Moraboekea (Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela)
 * Mora oleifera ( Hemsl.) Ducke (Panama, Colombia)
 * Mora paraensis (Ducke) Ducke &mdash; pracuuba (Brazil)

Some of the species are important for timber production. Mora excelsa and Mora gonggrijpii are also known as nato, and are commonly used in guitar body and neck construction.