Aglaia odorata is a slow-growing, much branche, evergreend shrub or small tree growing up to 10 metres tall. The bole can be 15cm in diameter. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of wood and essential oil. It is often grown as a hedge, and is cultivated in gardens of southeast Asia as an ornamental and for the very fragrant flowers which are used to flavour tea, to scent clothes etc; the flowers are commonly found…
The species is native to southern USA (i.e. Texas and southern Florida), Mexico, Central America (i.e. Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama), the Caribbean and South America (i.e. Surinam, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and Paraguay). The branches can are often drooping in nature, especially when carrying large numbers of mature fruit. There are usually at least some pairs of spines along the stems, one located at the base of each of the leaf stalks (i.e. they are axillary spines). Younger stems are green in colour and sparsely covered in close-lying (i.e. appressed) hairs. The leaves are simple…
Chukrasia tabularis, the Indian mahogany, is a deciduous tree, which is a monotypic genus in the family Meliaceae. It is native to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Thailand and Vietnam. Also introduced to many western countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, South Africa and United States. The plant is widely used in Ayurveda as an important medicinal plant. The trees are tall with a cylindrical bole and spreading crown. C. velutina leaves are abruptly pinnate or bipinnate with leaflets that alternate or are subopposite, entire…
Schisandra is a plant. The fruit is used as food and also to make medicine. Schisandra is used as an “adaptogen” for increasing resistance to disease and stress, increasing energy, and increasing physical performance and endurance. Schisandra is also used for preventing early aging and increasing lifespan, normalizing blood sugar and blood pressure, stimulating the immune system, and speeding recovery after surgery. It is also used for treating hepatitis and protecting the liver from poisons. The Chinese have developed a liver-protecting drug called DBD that…
The longan (龍眼, literally ‘dragon eye’), is so named because it resembles an eyeball when its fruit is shelled (the black seed shows through the translucent flesh like a pupil/iris). The seed is small, round and hard, and of an enamel-like, lacquered black. The fully ripened, freshly harvested fruit has a bark-like shell, thin, and firm, making the fruit easy to peel by squeezing the pulp out as if one were “cracking” a sunflower seed. When the shell has more moisture content and is more…
Norfolk Island pine is an evergreen tree with a narrow, elongate, pyramidal crown comprised of regular tiers of short, horizontal, spreading branches; it can grow up to 65 metres tall in its native habitat, but is likely to be much smaller grown elsewhere. The straight, cylindrical bole is usually 40 – 60cm in diameter, with some old trees said to be up to 300cm; there are swellings or small buttresses at the base. Logging has been a threat in the past. Land clearance and grazing…
Podocarpus macrophyllus is a conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is the northernmost species of the genus, native to southern Japan and southern and eastern China. Common names in English include yew plum pine, Buddhist pine and fern pine. Kusamaki (クサマキ) and inumaki (犬槇) are Japanese names for this tree. In China, it is known as 羅漢松 or luóhàn sōng, which literally means “arhat pine”. Podocarpus macrophyllus occurs in forests, open thickets, and roadsides from near sea level to 1000 m. Kusamaki is the state…
Archontophoenix alexandrae (Alexander palm, Alexandra palm, king Alexander palm, king palm, northern bangalow palm; syn. Ptychosperma alexandrae F.Muell.) is a palm native to Queensland and New South Wales, Australia, and naturalised in Hawaii and parts of Florida. It grows in littoral rainforest, often in locations that are severely inundated during heavy rain events. Their ability to withstand these conditions allow them to become the dominant species. It grows with a single trunk to a dramatic height of 20 – 30 feet (6 – 10 meters).…
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, known colloquially as Chinese hibiscus, China rose, Hawaiian hibiscus, rose mallow and shoeblackplant, is a species of tropical hibiscus, a flowering plant in the Hibisceae tribe of the family Malvaceae. It is widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions, but is not known in the wild, so that its native distribution is uncertain. An origin in some part of tropical Asia is likely. The flowers of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis are edible and are used in salads in the Pacific Islands.[citation needed] The flower is…
S. surattensis is a small tree which is listed as an ‘agricultural weed’, ‘environmental weed’, ‘cultivation escape’, ‘garden thug’, ‘naturalised’ and ‘weed’ in the Global Compendium of Weeds. It is known to shade out forages in mesic pastures and has a history of repeated introductions outside of its native range. However the species has been spread primarily by human cultivation rather than by seed dispersal, as its pods lack pulp and its seeds are not well adapted for dispersal by biotic or abiotic factors. A…