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Brazilian Teak

Dipteryx micrantha

Brazilian Teak
Photo: A conveyor belt for RENOBOTA, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, CC BY-SA 4.0

Dipteryx micrantha is a giant emergent rainforest tree from South America, valued for its dense reddish timber (cumaru). It is not a garden or houseplant; it needs a very large, humid tropical setting.

Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Shade
Water
Needs consistent moisture in a wet tropical climate; not grown in containers.
Soil
Deep, well-drained tropical forest soils.
Temperature
Warm tropical conditions year-round; not frost tolerant.
How easy
Hard
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
SE. Colombia to N. Peru and W. Brazil
Climate
wet tropical

About

Dipteryx micrantha is a tropical flowering plant, a giant tree in the Faboideae subfamily of the bean family Fabaceae. It is a dominant emergent tree in parts of the rainforests of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In the international timber market, this species is traded under the name cumaru. It furnishes a dense, hard, beautiful reddish timber which has become a popular import in the 2010s for use in parquet. The ornamental bunches of lilac pink flowers high in the canopy eventually develop into a mass of large fruit pods, which are an important food for many native animals during the dry season. The fruit contains a single oily seed which is edible, although these seeds are not exploited as a commercial product.

Where it grows

Bolivia: It is known in Bolivia from the departments of Beni, Cochabamba, La Paz, Pando and Santa Cruz.

Other Dipteryx plants

Baru tree · Dipteryx charapilla · Cumaru · Dipteryx oleifera · Dipteryx

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dipteryx micrantha 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.

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