Ice-cream bean
Inga edulis · Fabaceae · also Guaba, Guama, Pacay, Ingá-cipó
A fast, broad-crowned evergreen legume to about 30 m (usually much less in cultivation) with winged leaf stalks and twisted pods up to 1 m long filled with sweet white cottony pulp around the seeds, eaten like ice cream. Since the 1800s it has shaded coffee and cacao, and it is now the key tree of alley cropping and improved fallows on worn-out Amazonian soils because it fixes nitrogen, drops abundant litter and resprouts after pruning. Short-lived, like most pioneers.
Where it stands
Native
Care
Plant fresh seed (it loses viability in two weeks) at the start of the rains and keep a 1 m circle weed-free for six months. Prune or pollard above 0.75 m, cutting 3 cm above a node; it regrows strongly. Needs no watering once established and tolerates six-month droughts. Leaf-eating caterpillars, fruit flies in the pods and mistletoe are the main problems.
Benefits
Good for