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Samanea saman
Also called Raintree, French Tamarind, Cow Tamarind, Monkeypod, Monkey Pod Tree, Rendi, Monkey Pod
In Singapore: Rain Tree, Pukul Lima, Cow Tamarind, Hujan-Hujan, East Indian Walnut, Monkey-pod, Saman, 雨树 (Grown in Singapore)
35 NParks heritage trees in Singapore: Found in; Found in Everton Road, top of the slope opposite Block 10 multi-storey carpark; Found in Top of the slope at junction of Spottiswoode Park Road and Everton Road; Found in; Found in; Found in; Found in; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Fort Canning Park, near Bond Terrace; Found in Holland Road, near junction with Belmont Road; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Upper Bukit Timah Road, in open space opposite Gombak Drive. UppBTRd junction with Cashew Rd.; Found in Istana Ground; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Singapore Botanic Gardens, outside Visitor Centre pick-up/drop-off point; Found in Jalan Hang Jebat, in front of Block 109; Found in Kim Yam Road Stateland, beside Gambier Court condominium; Found in Connaught Drive; Found in Fort Canning Park, Parit Singapura; Found in Singapore Botanic Gardens, Lawn G
Samanea saman is a large, semi-deciduous tropical tree in the pea family, native to Central and South America and widely planted across South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. It is grown for its broad shade canopy, and it needs a warm, frost-free climate with a distinct dry season.
Samanea saman is a semi-deciduous species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, now in the Mimosoid clade and is native to Central and South America. It is often placed in the genus Samanea, which by yet other authors is subsumed in Albizia entirely.
Its range extends from Mexico south to Peru and Brazil, but it has been widely introduced to South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii. It is a well-known tree, rivaled perhaps only by lebbeck and pink siris among its genus. It is well represented in many languages and has numerous local names in its native range; common English names include saman, rain tree and monkeypod (see also § Names below).
The edible fruit pulp can be made into a beverage that tastes like lemons; the pulp is also an additive to gasoline.
[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 Samanea saman 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.
