Tara spinosa, commonly known as tara (Quechua), also known as Peruvian carob or spiny holdback, is a small leguminous tree or thorny shrub native to Peru. T. spinosa is cultivated as a source of tannins based on a galloylated quinic acid structure. This chemical structure has been confirmed also by LC–MS. It is also grown as an ornamental plant because of its large colorful flowers and pods.
Names and taxonomy
Its common names include spiny holdback, tara, taya, and algarroba tanino (Peru).
Tara spinosa is placed in the family Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae, and tribe Caesalpinieae.
Description
Tara spinosa typically grows 2–5 m (6.6–16.4 ft) tall; its bark is dark gray with scattered prickles and hairy twigs. Leaves are alternate, evergreen, lacking stipules, bipinnate, and lacking petiolar and rachis glands. Leaves consist of three to ten pairs of primary leaflets under 8 cm (3.1 in) in length, and five to seven pairs of subsessile elliptic secondary leaflets, each about 1.5–4 cm (0.6–2 in) long. Inflorescences are 15–20 cm (5.9–7.9 in) long terminal racemes, many flowered and covered in tiny hairs. Flowers are yellow to orange with 6- to 7-mm petals; the lowest sepal is boat-shaped with many long marginal teeth; stamens are yellow, irregular in length and barely protruding. The fruit is a flat, oblong indehiscent pod, about 6–12 cm (2.4–4.7 in) long and 2.5 cm (0.98 in) wide, containing four to seven round black seeds, which redden when mature.
