Photo by Bob Thomas, Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, May 2010.

Photo by Bob Thomas, Tikal, Guatemala, May 2010.

Photo by Bob Thomas, Tikal, Guatemala, May 2010.

We found these “fried egg” seeds on the forest floor for years and just couldn’t get them identified.  Dr. Mac Alford, and excellent tropical botanist at the University of Southern Mississippi, traveled with our group one year and we found the seed pods as well as seeds.  It is Chiche, Aspidosperma megalocarpon, a huge forest tree of the Family Apocynaceae.