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Swietenia mahagoni
Also called West Indies Mahogany, American Mahogany, Cuban Mahogany, Small-leaved Mahogany, Mahogany Tree, Spanish Mahogany, Mahogany
In Singapore: West Indian Mahogany (Grown in Singapore)
1 NParks heritage tree in Singapore: Found in Singapore Botanic Gardens, Lawn R
West Indian mahogany is a medium-sized semi-evergreen tree from the Caribbean and south Florida, and the species that gave us true mahogany wood. It is grown as a shade and street tree in warm climates and needs full sun and room to grow.
Swietenia mahagoni, commonly known as American mahogany, Cuban mahogany, small-leaved mahogany, and West Indian mahogany, is a species of Swietenia native to the broader Caribbean bioregion. It is the species from which the original mahogany wood was produced. Swietenia mahagoni is listed as "Threatened" in the Preservation of Native Flora of Florida Act. It is the national tree of the Dominican Republic.
Supplies of S. mahagoni are very rare due to historic over-harvesting, and most mahogany marketed now comes from other related species, often with faster growth but of lower wood quality.
It is also grown as an ornamental tree in subtropical and tropical regions. In Florida, it is grown as a street tree and a shade tree.
West Indian mahogany is native to islands in the West Indies including the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Hispaniola (includes the Dominican Republic and Haiti), but has widely been introduced to the rest of the Caribbean islands. It is also native to South Florida in the United States, representing the northernmost point of its range.
[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 Swietenia mahagoni 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.
