Paraserianthes toona
Paraserianthes toona
Safety & Hazards
The sawdust is highly irritant and can provoke nosebleeds[1].
Cultivation Details
A plant of the tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 800 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 2 - 32°c, but can tolerate 12 - 37°c[2]. When dormant, the plant can survive temperatures down to about -2°c, but young growth can be severely damaged at -1°c[2]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,000 - 1,750mm, but tolerates 800 - 2,000mm[2]. Grows best in a sunny position[2]. Grows best in a well-drained, light to medium soil of moderate fertility[2]. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 6.5, tolerating 5 - 7[2]. A fast-growing tree[1]. 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[3].
Propagation
Seed - it has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing to speed up germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Paraserianthes+toona>
Pollinators
Insects
References
- [1]Australian Rainforest Plants Volumes 1 - 6 — Nicholson N. & H. · Terania Rainforest Publishing; New South Wales. · 2007 · ISBN 9-78095894-3628 ↩︎Beautiful set of booklets with a terse description of over 600 species and their habitat, often including some of their uses and notes on their cultivation, plus at least one, excellent photograph.
- [2]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
- [3]Nodulation Plants in GRIN Taxonomy — United States Department of Agriculture · http://www.ars-grin.gov/~sbmljw/cgi-bin/taxnodul.pl?language=en ↩︎An online database listing plants that have either positive or negative reports on root and stem nodulation with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
- [4]Flora of Australia — http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/abif/flora/ ↩︎The full information from the Flora of Australia - on-line. An excellent resource.
- [5]Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants — http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/cd-keys/rfk/index.html ↩︎An online resource giving botanical information, and a little bit about plant usage, for over 2,700 species of plants found in the Australian rainforest.