It's Still a Penis Tree

We have a small courtyard in the back of the house - no trees. But we are fortunate that we have no backyard neighbors. Since we have started having cocktails occasionally up on the rooftop, we have gotten to know our "backyard" much better. Behind our privacy wall is a long and wide piece of property owned by the city. It is like a little mini-parque back there.

There is grass planted, several large palm trees, and a sidewalk that leads to a small covered area for city employees to take breaks/lunch. It is very shaded and tranquil and makes for the best of backyards for us...much better than a bar, brothel, or barking dogs (a reference to a past rental house). Along with the palm trees, there is one big tree probably 50 ft. high. Woodpeckers, doves and the cute little yellow-breasted kissadees love it. Right in the middle of what would normally be winter for us, the mostly leafless tree started budding out and these little green things started growing on it. As they grew, we realized they were sort of oblong shaped. I got excited and told Terry: "I think we may be able to get some of the avocadoes from this tree's branches that hang over our rooftop." He warned me at the time not to get too excited as he didn't think it was an avocado tree.
But as the little green things grew, I was even more excited about the shape they took on. They started looking a lot like cucumbers. I was still thinking they had to be some type of avocado. Being a country girl I know cucumbers don't grow on trees. OK...so after a while I relented. They weren't cucumbers and they weren't succulent, green, creamy avocadoes. But what were they?
We deemed the tree the penis tree. The tree was covered with these penises hanging down from each branch. Penises that were the color, size and shape of cucumbers.

When Sr. P. came over a few weeks ago to go up on the roof and give us the estimate to seal the roof he looked at the tree and shook his head. "No bueno": he said.
I gave up on the idea of avocadoes, cucumbers or penises. It was no longer even a penis tree but just a tree with lots of useless "pods" hanging off the branches.

Now, the words of Sr. P. have come back to us and I realize it truly is a penis tree! We have watched as each of these little pods have grown and burst open. As the skin pods fall to the ground they leave a white, poofy object hanging in the tree. When the wind kicks up, these poofy objects turn into a mulitude of little seeds with "wings" and they float through the air. Wherever they land, they take hold and the seed gets planted to start the process of forming another penis tree.
Yes, the way these seeds get spread so effortlessly, the tree is definitely still a penis tree.