Among the Maya the Balché tree is an important native ceremonial tree found in the forest. The pretty tree shown below, often seen along streets and in villages, is very closely related (same genus) but is not that ceremonial tree, though many people in the Yucatán still call it Balché.
That's Lonchocarpus violaceus, native to the Lesser Antilles and Northern South America. Below you see its flower, which is similar to many Bean Family species.
You know that fruits produced by members of the Bean Family are legumes that split open to release bean-type seeds. The typical legume holds several to many beans. An important distinction of the various Balché species is that their legumes contain only one or a very few beans. Below, you see the ornamental Balché's pods, sunlight from behind showing just one or two beans in each legume.
