Toona sinensis, known as red toon or Chinese mahogany, is a deciduous tree from east and southeast Asia, grown for its aromatic reddish-purple spring leaves. Propagate from seed or cuttings and give it deep, moist soil and full sun.
Family
Meliaceae (Meli family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Keep soil consistently moist, especially during establishment and dry spells.
Soil
Deep, fertile, well-drained loam that holds moisture.
Temperature
Hardy to about -15 to -20 °C once established; prefers warm summers.
How easy
Easy
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
Indian Subcontinent to C. & S. China and W. Malesia
Climate
temperate
About
Toona sinensis, commonly called Chinese mahogany, Chinese cedar, Chinese toon, beef and onion plant, or red toon (Chinese: 香椿; pinyin: xiāngchūn; Korean: 참죽, romanized: chamjuk; Hindi: डारलू, romanized: ḍāralū; Malay: suren; Vietnamese: hương xuân) is a species of Toona native to eastern and southeastern Asia, ranging from northern Korean peninsula through most of eastern, central, and southwestern China, in Nepal, northeastern India, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and even present in Malaysia and western Indonesia.
How to grow it
Toona sinensis can reproduce both sexually and asexually, including seed propagation, cutting propagation and tissue culture.
Seed propagation can provide large quantity of seedlings, which is suitable for the need of mass cultivation. Seeds soaked in warm water for a moderate amount of time before sowing are more likely to germinate. Normally, seeds of T. sinensis are sowed between the late March and early April in East Asia, and the time may vary depending on the actual planting area. Saplings grown from seeds in spring can be transplanted with leaves in fall.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Toona sinensis 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.