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Aphananthe philippinensis
Also called Asbestos Tree, Grey Handlewood, Rough Leaf Elm, Rough Leaf Hickory, Wild Holly, Rough Leaved Elm
Axe Handle Wood is a rainforest tree from the Philippines, New Guinea and eastern Australia, usually seen as a smaller tree by streams on moist soils. It is grown mainly as a shade or landscape tree in warm, humid climates rather than as a houseplant.
Aphananthe philippinensis is a common rainforest tree in the family Cannabaceae. In Australia it occurs from the Manning River in New South Wales to near Herberton in tropical Queensland. It was first described from the island of Luzon in the Philippines, hence the species name. The generic name of Aphananthe refers to 'insignificant flowers'. This plant also occurs on the Solomon Islands and in Papua New Guinea
The Australian habitat includes dry rainforest sites. However, it is mostly seen by streams on moist alluvial soils. Common names in Australia include native elm, grey handlewood, axe-handle wood, rough-leaved hickory and asbestos tree.
Native elm is a food tree for the common aeroplane and rounded six-line blue butterflies. Fruit are eaten by a variety of birds, including Australian king parrot, brown cuckoo-dove, black-faced cuckoo-shrike, figbird, green catbird, Lewin's honeyeater, olive-backed oriole, pied currawong, rainbow lorikeet, satin bowerbird, scaly-breasted lorikeet and yellow-eyed cuckoo-shrike.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aphananthe philippinensis 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.
