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Cynometra lenticellata
Also called Cascading Bean<!
In Singapore: Cascading Bean, Cascading Maniltoa, Pink Maniltoa, Silk Handkerchief Tree (Cultivated in Singapore)
Cynometra lenticellata is a tropical rainforest tree from northern Queensland, the Torres Strait and New Guinea, grown as a garden tree for its cascading white new foliage. It needs a warm, humid tropical climate and room to grow.
Cynometra lenticellata is a flowering tropical tree in the family Fabaceae. It is native to tropical semi-deciduous rainforest and gallery forests in northern Queensland, some of the Torres Strait Islands, and New Guinea. Common names include: silk handkerchief tree, cascading bean, and native handkerchief tree.
Cynometra lenticellata can grow up to 22 m (72 ft) tall but, more commonly, only reaches 10–12 m (33–39 ft). It has compound leaves with 2-4 pairs of leaflets. New leaves are folded inside dull red bracts and then released in a spectacular cascade of white foliage. The fruity-scented flowers which appear in north Queensland in September to October have 3 to 5 white-cream petals, and may be pollinated by marsupials or bats. They produce a brown pod 25–70 mm long by 18-50mm containing one brown seed in November to March. It is a favoured garden tree.
[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 Cynometra lenticellata 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.
