Aphanamixis polystachya, the pithraj or rohituka tree, is a large tropical forest tree of the mahogany family grown mainly for timber and traditional medicine. It needs a warm, humid tropical climate and is not a common garden or houseplant.
Family
Meliaceae (Meli family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then rely mainly on seasonal rainfall in its native wet tropics.
Soil
Deep, well-drained loamy soil.
Temperature
20–35 °C; protect from frost.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
S. China to Trop. Asia
Climate
wet tropical
About
Aphanamixis polystachya, the pithraj tree, is a species of tree in the family Meliaceae. It is native to India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It is a widely used as a medicinal plant in Ayurveda.
Safety
The fruit shell contains triterpenes, aphanamixin. The bark contains tetranortriterpene, and aphanamixinin. The leaves contain diterpene, alcohol, aphanamixol and β-sitosterol. The seeds yield a limonoid, rohitukin, polystachin and others, an alkaloid, a glycoside and a saponin. A chromone and three flavonoid glycosides have been reported from the roots.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aphanamixis polystachya by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.