Ice Cream Bean
Inga feuillei
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Mimosoideae
Ice Cream Bean, Inga, Guama, Guaba
Native to Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.
A large attractive tree with spreading branches and lovely white and yellow pompom type flowers.
Between each leaflet there is a nectary gland on the leaf rachis. The pods look similar to a large tamarind pod.
A nitrogen fixing tree, produces bean pods up to 3 ft long which contain sweet, juicy, white pulp that has a soft cotton wool texture and tastes of vanilla ice-cream.
The sweet pulp from the seed pod is eaten as a snack. Trees used as coffee shade.
