Mexican Logwood
Haematoxylum brasiletto

Family: Fabaceae

OTHER NAMES
Brazilwood
Spanish: palo brasil, campeche, palo de tinto

CHARACTERISTICS
Medium semi-evergreen tree, 10-20’h&w. Yellow flowers can appear almost any time of year and are followed by a small, flat, papery pod that is reddish-pink initially and fades to straw color. Pods hold for months on the tree and are as attractive as the flowers. They give the appearance of another blossom. Unusual fluted trunk develops with age. Rare in Tucson landscapes.

LANDSCAPE USE
Specimen tree or screening shrub

GROWING CONDITIONS
AN EXPLANAITION OF TERMS USED

SUN full to part sun
WATER moderate to low water
SOIL well-drained
BASIN middle to high
CONTAINER does ok in a container but doesn’t reach its potential size
HARDINESS hardy to about 25°F
FEEDING low

ECOLOGY
Nectar rich flowers for bees and butterflies.

Photo of the trunk of Haematoxylon brasilleto by Fher O. Galarza, iNaturalist

ETHNOBOTANY
Important medicinal plant in Mexico and also used for high quality wood. The heartwood is used to produce dye for wool and cotton cloth and a pink colouring used in pharmaceuticals and toothpaste. The pigments hematoxylin and hematein can be extracted and are complex phenols similar to bioflavonoids. Extracts of hardwood chips are used as remedies by the Tarahumara Indians.

NATURAL DISTRIBUTION
Native throughout western Mexico, as far north as Sonora in various habitats from tropical forests to desert scrub. It is also in Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Colombia.

TAXONOMY AND NAME
This plant is in the Fabaceae, the legume family. There are 4 species of Haematoxylon.
Haematoxylum means "bloodwood" in reference to its dark-red heartwood, and brasiletto, a geographical epithet, alludes to the location in of brazilwood in Brazil. But this species does not occur there and was probably called brazilwood because it resembles that tree (Paubrasilia echinata).