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Barringtonia asiatica
Also called Beach Barringtonia, Fish Poison Tree, Mango Pine, Asian Barringtonia, Fish Killer Tree, Mangobark, Box Fruit Tree
In Singapore: Putat Laut, Fish Poison Tree, Fish-killer Tree, Beach Barringtonia, Putat Gajah, Mindilla, Sea Putat, Barringtonia, Butun, Butong, Pertun, 棋盘脚树, 滨玉蕊 (Native to Singapore, Critically Endangered)
1 NParks heritage tree in Singapore: Found in Singapore Botanic Gardens, Healing Garden
A coastal tree of the Brazil-nut family, grown for its large fragrant flowers, glossy leaves and shade in tropical parks and gardens. It thrives in hot, humid, frost-free conditions near the sea.
Barringtonia asiatica, known variously as fish poison tree, putat and beach Barringtonia among other names, is a species of plants in the brazil nut family Lecythidaceae. It is native to coastal habitats from Tanzania and Madagascar in the west to tropical Asia, northern Australia, and islands of the western Pacific Ocean. It was described by Wilhelm Sulpiz Kurz in 1875 and has a conservation status of least concern. It has been used by a number of traditional cultures as a fish poison.
This tree has ornamental flowers and foliage and provides good shade, and it has been widely planted in tropical parks and gardens. In the city of Cairns, Australia, close to 100 have planted in the streets and parks.
Barringtonia asiatica is native to tropical coastlines from Tanzania and Madagascar to India, Southeast Asia, Australia, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji and many other islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and it has been introduced to the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago and the Windward Islands. It inhabits beaches and coastal forests at altitudes up to 100 m (330 ft).
Many traditional cultures have used the bark and seeds as a fish poison – they are crushed or pounded to release the saponins contained within, and then placed in slow moving freshwater streams or coral lagoons. The fish are quickly killed or stunned, but the mechanism is not fully understood.
Freshwater mangrove · Corned Beef Wood · Cutnut · Barringtonia macrostachya · Freshwater mangrove
[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 Barringtonia asiatica 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.
