"Iris Cohen" wrote in message
...

So it is related to cedars?

No, the misnamed specimen was evidently thought to be one of the
tropical "cedars" in the mahogany family Meliaceae, like those in
the familiar genus Cedrela. They may have aromatic wood like Cedrus
and Juniperus, etc, but they're not conifers.

The fact that it had been put in the mahogany genus Swietenia makes
me wonder if this was a leafless specimen in fruit [Luehea fruits are
rather similar in superficial appearance to those of Meliaceae, but
the leaves are nothing alike, being simple in Luehea and pinnately
compound in Meliaceae].

Where does it live & what does it look like?

It's a widespread, common tropical tree of Central and South America,
formerly classified in the family Tiliaceae, but now included in the
expanded Malvaceae.

IIRC, it's usually a rather scruffy, large shrub or smallish tree:

For some image links:
http://images.google.com/images?q=+%...qdr=all&tab=wi
http://ctfs.si.edu/webatlas/english/luehsp.html
http://www.nybg.org/bsci/belize/Luehea_speciosa_1.jpg
http://www.nybg.org/bsci/belize/Luehea_speciosa.jpg
http://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/pagina...magnoliophyta/
tiliaceae/luehea_speciosa/l_speciosa11ene98/l_speciosa11ene98.html

cheers