| Growth Form | Medium-sized tree, usually up to 30m tall in urban-scapes, may reach 60m in native range. Crown symmetrically umbrella-shaped, wide-spreading (up to as much as 80m across for mature specimens in open spaces), branching at relatively low height from tree base. |
| Trunk | Dark brown, becoming more than fissured with age, and peeling off in long fibrous strips. |
| Leaf | Leaves alternate, bipinnately-compound, with small asymmetrical leaflets that are more curved on outer margin, and finely velvety on underside. Leaflets fold up in early evening and during overcast days. Partially deciduous under local conditions. |
| Flowers | Produced every bit dense powderpuff cluster with numerous filamentous stamens, pink in a higher place and white below, slightly fragrant, attractive to bees. |
| Fruits | Loment seedpods, adequately straight, fleshy with thickened edges and constricted in between seeds, ripening to blackness and breaking apart into segments along constrictions. Contain numerous dark brown seeds embedded in sticky, sweet-smelling, brown-black lurid. Thought to exist previously dispersed by now-extinct Pleistocene mammals, seeds now eaten and dispersed by cattle and other vertebrates, or by natural disintegration of the pods on the ground. |
| Habitat | Native to dry forests and savannahs of tropical Americas. Widely introduced every bit landscape tree in tropical SE Asia and Hawaii. |
| Taxonomy | Scientific name for this species had been debated and revised several times since 1974. Based on seedpod and inflorescence characteristics, botanist Ivan C. Nielsen subsumed the genus Samanea in synonymy nether the broadly-divers Albizia genus in 1981 (Nielsen, 1981; Nielsen, Rico, 1994).Barneby and Grimes (1996) argued for a reinstatement of Samanea equally a separate taxon based on broadly-differentiated morphological characteristics similar branching pattern, and developmental stages of vegetative and floral buds, only did non consider Albizia in their treatment of ingoid Mimosoideae alliances. Databases accepting Samanea saman include USDA GRIN Taxonomy and Australian Constitute Name Alphabetize (APNI).The Angiosperm Phylogeny Grouping (APG), which classifies plants co-ordinate to a mod taxonomic system based on molecular systematics studies (as opposed to the morphology-based Linnaean taxonomy system) recognizes Albizia as the accepted taxon over Samanea (APGII, 2003; APGIII, 2009). This appears to be supported by separate legume phenology evidence-based studies (Wojciechowski, 2003; Lavin, Herendeen, Wojciechowski, 2005). Other major authorities accepting Albizia saman as the accepted name include: ILDIS Earth Database of Legumes (ver. x.01), Kew Gardens (Tracheophyte Families and Genera), Royal Horticultual Society UK, Food and Agriculture Organization (United Nations), Earth Agroforestry Centre, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Florida, USA), and so on. |
| Cultivation | Hardy tree, tolerant of poor acidic soils down to pH 4.half-dozen, and waterlogged conditions. Recommended planting altitude is 18m along roadsides and 24m in open spaces. Copse located very closely together under plantation weather condition produce fewer branches and longer articulate body suitable for timber apply. Relatively pest-free, although many specimens in Singapore take experienced die-back and defoliation due to attack by a Phomopsis fungal complex that is promoted by drought stress.Easily propagated by stump and stem cuttings, and past seeds (pretreat by soaking in hot water for three minutes, followed by 24 hours of cold water). Seed progenies can be somewhat variable, Based on local plant nursery experience in batch-sowing (of seeds from several mother plants), it is observed that fourscore%-100% of the seedlings would be the normal light-green form, 0%-xx% would be the yellow form, 0%-x% would be the light-green small leaf form (with leaflets half the size of that of the normal green form), while the remaining 0%-5% may consist of a more peculiar "clingy" variant with leaflets that are held closely to the twigs and thus appear folded upwards. |
| Etymology | Genus epithet 'Samanea and species epithet 'saman' derived from linguistic corruption of the tree's' vernacular Spanish name in northern Venezuela, "zaman" (significant "Mimosa-like tree"). Common name 'Rain Tree' alludes to tree's habit of folding up leaves before rain, or to the shower of secretions from sap-sucking Cicadas resting on tree. |
| Ethnobotanical Uses | Edible Plant Parts (Edible Fruits)
Nutrient (Herb and Spice)
Cultural / Religious ( Heritage Tree: There are 35 individuals of Samanea saman listed as Heritage Trees in Singapore. They are institute all over various parts of Singapore. To find out more virtually these trees, please visit the Heritage Tree Annals. )
[Others]: Medicinal: Seeds chewed to relieve sore throat. Infusion of fresh leaves and inner bark drank every bit tea to care for diarrhoea. Bark or root decoction used in hot baths to treat stomach cancer. Leaf extract reported to have inhibiting effect on Mycobacterium tuberculosis -- the causative bacterium for many types of tuberculosis. Food: Viscid, sweetness, liquorice-flavoured pulp from seed pods eaten raw by children, or made into lemon-like drinkable. Timber: Tree valued for durable timber. Sawn wood shrinks very little during drying, allowing it to be worked on even when unseasoned. The preferred wood used for carvings (eg. traditional Hawaiian tikis), crafts, article of furniture, panelling and boat-building. Trunk sections used to make oxcart wheels in Primal America. As well used as high-quality firewood and charcoal, equally well as to brand paper. Products: Grounded up seedpods used as raw material for making biofuels, or shaped into assurance and stale in the sun to obtain very hard cricket-ball substitutes used as toys by children in Southern India. In Thailand, tree is used every bit primary host constitute for Laccifer lacca (Lac Insect) that feeds on resin-rich bark of tree, and coat colonized branches with a cherry resinous pigment, which can be harvested every bit a rather poor-quality and brittle seedlac, or farther processed into shellac. As well yields an junior glue used every bit substitute for gum arabic. Seeds dried and made into necklaces or other craft items. Agriculture: Nutritious seedpods used as fodder for livestock. Trees used in plantations to provide shade for crops like coffee, tea, cocoa, nutmeg and vanilla. Also used in pastures to provide shade for grazing animals. Nitrogen-rich prunings used as dark-green manure to amend soil on agricultural and pastoral lands. Civilisation: According to legend, Venezuelan political leader and army general Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), known for leading v Latin American countries (Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia) to independence from Spanish monarchy rule, was said to have camped his unabridged liberation army near Maracay (a city in central Venezuela) under a very big Albizia saman tree, at present popularly known by the locals as "saman de guerra" -- meaning "saman of war" in Spanish-Portuguese. |
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