Simarouba glauca DC.

Taxonomy: Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Sapindales > Simaroubaceae > Simarouba > S. glauca

Description: Paradise Tree is an evergreen, small to medium-sized tree growing up to 15 m in height, with a narrow crown, well-developed root system, and straight, cylindrical bole that can be at least 30 cm in diameter. The leaves are arranged alternately, are odd pinnately compound, up to 40 cm long, with 10-20 leaflets. The leaflets are up to 10 cm in length, dark green above, lighter below, with an entire margin and rounded leaf tip. Flowers are arranged in at branch-ends and in leaf-axils, in panicles. The calyx has 5 unfused, greenish sepals. The flower has 5 free yellowish-white overlapping petals. Male flowers have 10 stamens and no ovaries. Female flowers have 10 nonfunctional stamens and 5 unfused ovaries each with a single locule and seed. Occasionally there are perfect flowers produced on either the staminate or carpellate trees. The fruit is an oval purple/black drupe at maturity.

Flowering and fruiting:

Uses: The wood is generally insect resistant and is used in preparation of quality toys, matches and in paper making. It effective for treating certain diseases. The extracts from parts of the tree have been claimed to possess potent anticancer properties.

Cultivation: From seeds , grafting and tissue culture technology.

References

http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org

https://indiabiodiversity.org