Pterocarpus indicus

What to Eat

Edible parts: Leaves, Flowers, Vegetable

The young leaves and fragrant flowers are said to be eaten, with such meals likely concentrated during leaf flush and flowering periods.

Where to Find It

A tropical plant. It is native to tropical Asia. It does best in rich, moist, well-drained soils. It needs a protected sunny position. It is damaged by drought and frost. It is often found in coastal swamps along tidal creeks. It usually grows in areas with an annual average temperature of 22-32°C. It can grow in soils with a pH of 4.0-7.4. It suits hardiness zones 11-12. In Yunnan.

Africa, Asia, Australia, Bougainville, Brunei, Cambodia, Caribbean, Carolines, Central Africa, Central America, China, Congo, Cuba, East Africa, East Timor, Fiji, Guam, Guyana, Hawaii, India, Indochina, Indonesia*, Jamaica, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Micronesia, Mozambique, Myanmar, North America, Pacific, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, PNG, Philippines*, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, SE Asia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Trinidad, USA, Vanuatu, Vietnam, West Africa, West Indies, West Timor, Yap,

How to Identify

A medium sized evergreen tree. It grows to 27-30 m high and spreads to 4 m across. The stem is erect and stout. It branches. The trunk is 60-80 cm across. The leaves are compound with an odd number of leaflets. These are oval. The leaves are 20-45 cm long. The leaflets are 6-10 cm long by 3-5 cm wide. It can lose its leaves. The flowers are yellow and woolly. The sepals forming the outer ring of the flowers are brown. The flowers occur as many in a branched flower arrangement. The flowers are bell shaped. The fruit are round pods. These are 5 cm across. They can have 1 or 2 seeds but sometimes 4.

How to Grow

A plant of the moist to wet tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 750 metres, though it can be cultivated at higher elevations. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 24 - 32°c, but can tolerate 12 - 37°c. The plant is not frost tolerant.. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 2,000 - 3,000mm, but tolerates 1,500 - 3,500mm. Amboyna behaves like a pioneer and grows best in an open position. Succeeds in a range of soils from sandy loams to clays with a pH from neutral to very strongly acid. Prefers a fertile, moisture-retentive soil. Tolerates moderate levels of salt in the soil. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 6.5, tolerating 5 - 7.5. As an urban tree, amboyna is relatively wind-firm and seldom suffers branch breakage. Under favourable conditions, trees in Singapore have been known to grow an average of 33 metres in height and 1.55 metres in girth in 11 years, or an average annual increment of 1.2 metres height and 14 cm girth. Open-grown trees usually begin flowering and fruiting between 5 and 10 years of age. The roots can become quite large and grow near the surface, the tree should therefore be planted several metres away from sidewalks and other structures. Seedlings are slower growing than cuttings and exhibit considerable variation in vigour. A strict culling program would be necessary to ensure that only the best stocks are planted out. Rooted cuttings can be established readily on nearly all kinds of soils, from coastal sands to inland clays, in urban and garden situations, and even in quite small planting holes dug into pavements. However, establishment trials in forest areas have had mixed results and some have failed. The reasons are not clear. Trees of all sizes and ages easily regenerate new shoots when lopped or pollarded. In Papua New Guinea, logged forest trees readily regenerate new plants from the roots. This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby. Bloom Color: Gold (Yellow-Orange) Bright Yellow. Spacing: over 40 ft. (12 m).

Propagation: Seed germinates readily with no pre-treatment required. Because separating the fragile seeds from the tough pods by hand is difficult and currently impossible mechanically, pods are sown whole. Germination rates of 24–57% have been recorded, with the first seeds germinating after 5 days and the last after 3 months. Pods are lightly covered with potting mixture in germination beds or trays and kept moist until germination; sowing with pods requires thinning plants soon after emergence. When true leaves develop, seedlings are transplanted into nursery bags or pots filled with potting mixture. Seedlings of about 50cm are suitable for most forestry plantings. Air-dried seeds in their pods remain viable after 1 year of storage at room temperature. Cuttings can be rooted; in the Philippines, branch cuttings about 8cm in diameter are rooted after hormone treatment to produce instant trees.

Medicinal Uses

The kino obtained from the trunk is sticky, bitter, and oily. It is said to be antibilious, emetic, and sternutatory, and is used to treat throat ailments and mouth sores, and as a folk remedy for tumours, particularly of the mouth. It was once administered for diarrhoea, often combined with opium. Young leaves are applied externally to boils, prickly heat, and ulcers, and finely powdered leaves are applied to a ruptured vagina. The leaves are reported to significantly inhibit the growth of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells. Root juice is used to treat syphilis.

Other Uses

A large flowering tree used as a shade tree, street tree, and in public open spaces. A nitrogen-fixing species recommended for agroforestry systems and as a shade tree for coffee and other crops. A red dye is obtained from the bark, and the wood yields a reddish dye, more fugitive than that of the related Pterocarpus santolinus. The tree is a source of kino — a red resin-like substance obtained by tapping — used locally as an astringent and in tanning. A leaf infusion is used as a shampoo. The heartwood is brick-red to golden brown in colour, aging to a dull brown leather colour. The wood is moderately hard and moderately heavy, easy to work, pleasantly rose-scented, and takes a fine polish, developing rich colours from yellow to red. Conspicuous growth rings impart a fine figure to the wood, developing even in the non-seasonal humid tropics. The wood shapes well, takes a high polish, and resists termites and rot. It is used for high-class furniture and cabinets, decorative sliced veneer, interior wall panelling, feature flooring including strip and parquet, musical instruments, gun stocks, rifle butts, turned articles, knife handles, boat building, and specialised joinery. The highly prized Amboyna burl — one of the rarest and most valued wood products in the world — is marked with twisted curls and knots more varied than bird's-eye maple, and there is a distinctive sweet smell when working the wood. The more red the wood, the heavier it is, with an average density of around 720 kg/m³. Though not typically recommended as firewood, the wood can be used as fuel, and some Pterocarpus species burn green.

Pterocarpus indicus (commonly known as Amboyna wood, Malay padauk, Papua New Guinea rosewood, Philippine mahogany, Andaman redwood, Burmese rosewood, narra (from Tagalog) and asana in the Philippines, angsana, or Pashu padauk) is a species of Pterocarpus in the family Fabaceae native to southeastern Asia, northern Australasia, and the western Pacific Ocean islands, in Cambodia, southernmost China, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. Pterocarpus indicus was one of two species (the other being Eysenhardtia polystachya) used as a source for the 16th- to 18th-century traditional diuretic known as lignum nephriticum. Many populations of Pterocarpus indicus are seriously threatened. It is extinct in Vietnam and possibly in Sri Lanka and Peninsular Malaysia. It was declared the national tree of the Philippines in 1934 by Governor-General Frank Murphy of the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands through Proclamation No. 652.

Production

It is fast growing. All trees in one area flower at the same time for just a few days due to the drop in temperature with the first rains.

Other Information

It is only a minor food.

Notes

The timber is an attractive furniture timber.

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