Ice Cream Bean Flower

Did you know

• The fluffy white seed pulp inside the long pods tastes remarkably like vanilla ice cream, hence the name.
• Flowers are pollinated primarily by bats and moths attracted to the brush-like white stamens at night.
• It is widely used in agroforestry because it fixes nitrogen and provides shade for cocoa and coffee plants.
• The seed pods can grow up to 1 meter long — among the longest legume pods in the world.
• Indigenous Amazonian peoples have cultivated Inga edulis for thousands of years as a food and shade tree.

Color meanings

Uses

• agroforestry shade tree
• edible fruit
• nitrogen fixation
• firewood
• reforestation