Toona sinensis
EOL Text
The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 16
Specimens with Barcodes: 16
Species With Barcodes: 1
Toona sinensis (syn. Cedrela sinensis A.Juss.; Chinese Mahogany, Chinese Toon, or Red Toon (Chinese: 香椿; pinyin: xiāngchūn; Hindi: daaraluu; Malay: suren; Vietnamese: tông dù) is a species of Toona native to eastern and southeastern Asia, from North Korea south through most of eastern, central and southwestern China to Nepal, northeastern India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and western Indonesia.[1][2][3][4][5]
It is a deciduous tree growing to 25 metres (82 ft) tall with a trunk up to 70 cm diameter. The bark is brown, smooth on young trees, becoming scaly to shaggy on old trees. The leaves are pinnate, 50–70 cm long and 30–40 cm broad, with 10–40 leaflets, the terminal leaflet usually absent (paripinnate) but sometimes present (imparipennate); the individual leaflets 9–15 cm long and 2.5–4 cm broad, with an entire or weakly serrated margin. The flowers are produced in summer in panicles 30–50 cm long at the end of a branch; each flower is small, 4–5 mm diameter, with five white or pale pink petals. The fruit is a capsule 2–3.5 cm long, containing several winged seeds.[1][4][5][6]
Cultivation and uses[edit]
The young leaves of T. sinensis (xiāngchūn) are extensively used as a vegetable in China; they have a floral, yet onion-like flavor, attributed to volatile organosulfur compounds.[7] Plants with red young leaves are considered of better flavour than those where the young leaves are green.[1][8][9]
The timber is hard and reddish; it is valuable, used for furniture making [1][6] and for bodies of electric guitars. Being a "true mahogany", it is the most sought after replacement for Swietenia mahogany ("genuine mahogany") which is now commercially restricted from being sourced natively.[10]
Outside of its native region T. sinensis is valued more as a large ornamental tree for its haggard aspect.[5][11] It is by far the most cold-tolerant species in the Meliaceae and the only member of the family that can be cultivated successfully in northern Europe.
Culture[edit]
In Chinese literature, Toona sinensis is often used for a rather extreme metaphor, with a mature tree representing a father. This manifests itself occasionally when expressing best wishes to a friend's father and mother in a letter, where one can write "wishing your Toona sinensis and daylily are strong and happy" (simplified Chinese: 椿萱并茂; traditional Chinese: 椿萱並茂; pinyin: chūnxuānbìngmào), with Toona sinensis metaphorically referring to the father and daylily to the mother.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d Hua Peng, David J. Mabberley, Caroline M. Pannell, Jennifer M. Edmonds & Bruce Bartholomew. "Toona sinensis". Flora of China. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ Germplasm Resources Information Network: Toona sinensis
- ^ University of Melbourne: Sorting Toona names
- ^ a b Hong Kong trees: Toona sinensis (in Chinese, with photos; google translation)
- ^ a b c Rushforth, K. (1999). Trees of Britain and Europe. Collins ISBN 0-00-220013-9.
- ^ a b Taiwan Forestry: Toona sinensis (in Chinese, with photos; google translation)
- ^ Li J.-X., Eidman K., Gan X.-W., Haefliger O. P., J. Carroll P. J., Pika J. "Identification of (S,S)‑γ-glutamyl‑(cis-S‑1-propenyl)thioglycine, a naturally occurring norcysteine derivative, from the Chinese vegetable Toona sinensis." Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2013 61 (7470−7476).
- ^ Plants for a Future: Toona sinensis
- ^ Oriental Vegetable Seeds: Toona sinensis
- ^ "Press Release UNEP/181_Cites Trade Controls to Take Effect for Mahogany".
- ^ More, D. & White, J. (2003). Cassell's Trees of Britain & Northern Europe. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 709
Further reading[edit]
- Wang, Kai-Jin, Chong-Ren Yang, and Ying-Jun Zhang. "Phenolic antioxidants from Chinese toon (fresh young leaves and shoots of Toona sinensis)."Food Chemistry 101.1 (2007): 365-371.
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This is generally an upland species but also occurs at lower altitudes in China. It is planted in India and Sri Lanka for shade, and in various European cities (e.g., Paris) as an ornamental.
The timber is used for furniture and sieve hoop-making, and in bridge construction. The leaves are used as a vegetable in China and Malaysia, and as animal fodder in India. The trees are widely used medicinally, with the bark being used as an astringent and depurative, powdered root as a refreshment and a diuretic, and tender leaves as a carminative.
The leaf morphology and indumentum types and density are particularly variable in this species, with capsule valve form also showing some variability. On the basis of such features, up to eight infraspecific variants have been recognized by other authors.
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A hardy tree, usually found in moist shady places from 1000 m to 2500 m. The wood is used for making furniture.
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Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand].
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Himalaya (Kashmir to Nepal), Assam, Burma
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Distribution: Upper Burma, India and Pakistan.
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Trees to 40 m tall; trunk to 20 m tall, to 1.5 m d.b.h., buttressed. Bark gray to dark brown, fissured; inner bark pink to red, fibrous; sap-wood cream-colored to red, fibrous, smelling strongly of garlic and pepper when cut. Leaves 32-120 cm; petiole 5.5-20 cm, glabrous or pilose; rachis often reddish, glabrous or pilose; leaflets usually 8-20 pairs; petiolules 3-9 mm, glabrescent; leaflet blades narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 11-22 × 3-5.6 cm, glabrous or pilose especially on midvein and secondary veins, with club-shaped glandular trichomes conspicuous on adaxial midvein areas and junction between leaf rachis and petiolules, base asymmetric, margin serrate, serrulate, or rarely entire, apex acuminate. Inflorescences to 1 m, pendent; rachis pilose, villous, or glabrescent, with short appressed or spreading simple trichomes. Flowers 3.5-4.5 mm. Pedicel ca. 0.5 mm, pilose to glabrescent. Calyx cup-shaped, 1-1.5 mm, outside glabrous; sepals 0.5-1.1 × 0.6-1.8 mm, margins ciliate. Petals white or flushed pink, 2.8-4.2 × 1.1-2.9 mm, outside glabrous, margin not ciliate. Androgynophore 2.5-4 mm, glabrous; staminodes always present, (1-)5, 0.7-1.8 mm, glabrous; filaments 1.3-1.8 mm (male flowers), 1-1.5 mm (female flowers), glabrous; anthers of male flowers 0.8-1.2 × 0.5-0.8 mm; antherodes of female flowers 0.3-0.8 × 0.3-0.5 mm, apex apiculate and sometimes extended. Disk orange, 1-1.5 mm in diam., glabrous. Ovary 1.6-2.3 mm in diam., glabrous, with to 6 ovules per locule; style 1.1-1.5 × ca. 0.5 mm (male), 0.5-0.8 × 0.3-0.4 mm (female), glabrous; stylehead 0.5-1 mm in diam. Capsule 1.5-3 cm; columella 1.2-2.9 × 0.6-1.1 cm, convex; valves reddish to dark brown, 1.5-3 × 0.4-0.7 cm, smooth or occasionally punctate but not conspicuously lenticellate, with only 0.3-0.5 mm in diam. scattered lenticels. Seeds 0.8-1.6 cm × 3.5-6.2 mm, winged at one end; seed body 0.8-1 cm × 1.7-4 mm. Fl. May-Oct, fr. Aug-Jan.
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2100-2300 m
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