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Hernandia nymphaeifolia
Also called Sea Hearse
Lantern tree is a coastal tree of the tropical Indo-Pacific, growing along sea shores and in coastal swamps, valued for its light wood and lantern-like fruit. It is not a common container plant, so care advice applies mainly to cultivation in frost-free tropical gardens.
Hernandia nymphaeifolia is a species of plant in the Hernandiaceae family. Its common name is lantern tree. It is a tree native to Madagascar and the western Indian Ocean islands, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Malesia, Papupasia, northern Australia, and the Pacific.
The species was first described as Biasolettia nymphaeifolia by Carl Borivoj Presl in 1835. In 1970 Klaus Kubitzki placed the species in genus Hernandia as H. nymphaeifolia.
This species occurs throughout the tropics (Duyfjes 1996) exclusively in coastal areas: along the sea-shore in littoral forest and in coastal swamps. Fujita (1991) lists H. nymphaeifolia as being seed dispersed by the Marianas flying fox in the Mariana Islands.
Hernandia nymphaeifolia has a light, perishable wood. It has been used in South Pacific islands for fishing rods, fish net floats, wooden sandals, fan handles, drawing boards, canoe accessories, furniture and firewood, etc. A woody layer surrounds the seed of the lantern tree fruit. The Tahaitians polish the round brown seeds to a high gloss and fashion them into necklaces. The Marshallese bathe children in a healing bath made from H. nymphaeifolia leaves and relieve headaches with a preparation from other tree parts. The effect of lignans from this species on Ca2+ signaling in human neutrophils has been studied.
Hernandia albiflora · Hernandia beninensis · Greasenut · Hernandia catalpifolia · Hernandia cubensis · Hernandia didymantha · Hernandia drakeana · Hernandia hammelii · Hernandia jamaicensis · Hernandia labyrinthica · Hernandia lychnifera · Hernandia mascarenensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hernandia nymphaeifolia 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.
