mombin batard

English

Noun

mombin batard

1. A deciduous shrub growing on Haiti, Trichilia hirta (red cedar).
   • 1966, Francis Huxley, The invisibles: Voodoo gods in Haiti, page 56:

     Seven leaves of mombin bâtard and seven leaves of loupgarou must be picked with the same invocation.

   • 1985, Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Simon & Schuster, page 78:

     Oris was stretched out in the shade of a mombin batard tree, resting on one elbow and gnawing on a stick of sugarcane.

   • 2008, Rene Philoctete, Massacre River, page 231:

     Mombin (Spondias Mombin) is a kind of plum much prized in Haiti, and the mombin-batard (Trichilia Hirta) is the wild variety, a common Haitian tree whose leaves are believed to drive away evil spirits through purifying powers related to the plant's supposed African origin.