A Drunken Tree

Collected by Isabel Balducci from the Eastern Toba people of Gran Chaco, Argentina. So named because of its swollen water-storing trunk, the "drunken tree" (palo borracho in Spanish) is widely known in subtropical parts of South America. The scientific name of the white-flowered species is Chorisia insignis. In North America it is often called the "White Silk Floss Tree" because of its large oval seed pods that split open when ripe to expose a fluffy mass of silky fibers.

<Full-length video in Windows Media Player>

Step-by-Step Video Clips

Written Instructions

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Step 7 - 2 hooks down the double palmar string of the same hand by entering its own loop from above.

Release the double loops on 1 and 5, then separate the hands slightly until the original (single) loop on 2 slips off.

1 and 5, entering from the fingertip side, remove the double 2 loop.

Extend with fingers pointing upward to reveal a double-walled diamond flanked by two collapsed triangles.

Balducci does not specify whether the design represents the entire tree or merely a part of it, such as the split-open seed pod (perhaps the diamond represents the fluffy mass and the triangles represent two halves of the pod).