Your Ultimate Guide To Barbados

Bread 'n' Cheese (N.B. Research this some more and see which one is prevalent here. The vine or tree) Also check difference between black seeds and red and black seeds.

In Barbados, bread 'n' cheese (Pithecellobium unguis-cati) is commonly used as a hedge based on the fact that it has spines which make it fairly impenetrable. Although it is difficult to harvest because of the spines, the wood of bread 'n' cheese plant is used for fuel in other parts of the world.

The term bread 'n' cheese is commonly used in the Virgin Islands and the English-speaking Lesser Antilles including such islands as Barbados. In Florida, the species is also known as cat's claw and black bead.

The fleshy white covering (aril) of the plant is edible but not favoured as a delicacy due to its lingering flavour. The seeds of the bread 'n' cheese plants are used to make necklaces.

Characteristics

The bread 'n' cheese plant usually has multiple stems arising at or below ground level. The stems and branches are gray and nearly smooth with lenticels and rings at the nodes. The paired spines are persistent. Bread-and-cheese produces a taproot and abundant lateral and fine roots. Alternate hairless leaves have petioles 2 to 5 cm long and leaf blades 2 to 6 cm long. There are four obliquely obovate or oblong leaflets per leaf. The greenish-yellow, yellow, or pink flowers form terminal or axillary racemes or panicles in heads.

The legume, 5 to 10 cm long, is coiled or curved and splits open to reveal 4- to 6-mm shiny, black seeds surrounded by white to red fleshy arils (Howard 1988, Liogier 1988, Little and others 1974). Bread-and-cheese is easily confused with P. dulce (Roxb.) Benth., which grows as an exotic in many Caribbean islands. The latter is a tree with somewhat smaller leaves, coarser twigs, larger fruits, and less pronounced rings at the nodes.

The bread 'n' cheese plant has a preference for well-drained soils but all soil conditions appear to be tolerated by this plant. It is even known to be tolerant of salt conditions.