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Sea randa

Guettarda speciosa

Also called Zebra wood, Zebrawood, Beach False Medlar, Beach Gardenia, Beach Medlar

In Singapore: Sea Randa, Selar Makan, Baru-Baru Laut, Bebaru Laut, Beach Gardenia, Zebra Wood, Ketapang Pasir, 海岸桐, 榄仁舅 (Native to Singapore, Endangered)

Sea randa
Photo: Casliber, Public domain

Sea randia is a coastal shrub or small tree from tropical Pacific and Indian Ocean shores that grows in sand above the high tide line. It needs full sun, good drainage and warm conditions, and is valued for its fragrant white flowers.

Family
Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then let the top of the soil dry slightly between waterings.
Soil
Free-draining sandy or loamy mix, tolerant of salt and sand.
Temperature
18-32 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Moderate
Native range
SE. Kenya to S. Africa, Trop. & Subtrop. Asia to Pacific
Climate
wet tropical

About

Guettarda speciosa, with common names sea randia, or zebra wood, is a species of shrub in the family Rubiaceae found in coastal habitats in tropical areas around the Pacific Ocean, including the coastline of central and northern Queensland and Northern Territory in Australia, and Pacific Islands, including Micronesia, French Polynesia and Fiji, Malaysia and Indonesia, Maldives and the east coast of Africa. It reaches 6 m in height, has fragrant white flowers, and large green prominently-veined leaves. It grows in sand above the high tide mark.

Where it grows

Guettarda speciosa is found in coastal habitats in tropical areas around the Pacific Ocean, including the coastline of central and northern Queensland and Northern Territory in Australia, and Pacific Islands, including Micronesia, French Polynesia and Fiji, Malaysia and Indonesia, Maldives and the east coast of Africa. As its name suggests, the beach gardenia grows on beaches and sandy places above the high tide level.

Other Guettarda plants

Velvetseed

[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 Guettarda speciosa 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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