Toona sinensis | |
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Foliage and seed capsules | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Sapindales |
Family: | Meliaceae |
Genus: | Toona |
Species: | T. sinensis |
Binomial name | |
Toona sinensis | |
Synonyms | |
Synonyms list
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Toona sinensis, commonly called Chinese mahogany, [2] Chinese cedar, Chinese toon, beef and onion plant, [3] or red toon (Chinese :香椿; pinyin :xiāngchūn; Korean : 참죽, romanized: chamjuk; Hindi : डारलू, romanized: d̩āralū; 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. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
It is a deciduous tree growing to 25 metres (82 ft) tall with a trunk up to 70 cm diameter. The bark is brown, smooth on young trees, becoming scaly to shaggy on old trees. The leaves are pinnate, 50–70 cm long and 30–40 cm broad, with 10–40 leaflets, the terminal leaflet usually absent (paripinnate) but sometimes present (imparipennate); the individual leaflets 9–15 cm long and 2.5–4 cm broad, with an entire or weakly serrated margin. The young leaves are reddish-brown or purple, and have a smell. The flowers are produced in summer in panicles 30–50 cm long at the end of a branch; each flower is small, 4–5 mm diameter, with five white or pale pink petals. The fruit is a golden capsule 2–3.5 cm long, containing several winged seeds. [4] [7] [8] [9]
It is similar to Ailanthus altissima in appearance, but their leaves smell differently. Toona has rough bark, while A. altissima has smooth bark.
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. [10]
Cutting propagation uses a piece of stem or root of mature plant to grow a new plant in media like moist soil. This method has a higher survival rate in saplings than other methods. Usually semi-lignified stems are used in planting because those that have undergone full lignification process are hard to take root or root slowly and stems that have not lignified are easy to decay after planting. NAA or Vitamin D solutions can help with the rooting of cut stems. Normally, T. sinensis stems are cut from mature plant and cultivated between late June and early July in East Asia, and time may differ depending on the actual planting area. [10]
Tissue culture of T. sinensis started from the late 1980s in China. Successful cases include the culture of T. sinensis seedlings on MS medium together with IAA and BA hormones. Since the 1980s, researchers have collected stems of mature T. sinensis trees from different regions and built a set of methods specifically for the tissue culture of rare varieties of Toona sinensis. [11]
The young leaves of T. sinensis are extensively used as a vegetable in Chinese cuisine; they have a floral, yet onion-like flavor, attributed to volatile organosulfur compounds. [12] Plants with red young leaves are considered of better flavour than those where the young leaves are green. [4] [13] [14]
In China and Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, the young leaves of Toona sinensis or commonly known as Chinese Mahogany is used to make Toona paste, which is used as a condiment to serve with plain rice porridge as breakfast and simple meals, or to enhance the flavour of a dish or soup. Common dishes made with Toona paste are Chinese Mahogany fried rice, Chinese Mahogany beancurd, and Chinese Mahogany mushroom soup.
The leaves contain Vitamin E, and high amounts of iron, calcium and chlorophyll. [15]
The timber is hard and reddish; it is valuable, used for furniture, [4] [9] musical instruments such as guitars, and in woodcarving. This is a common (and substantially cheaper) replacement for Swietenia or "true mahogany", which is now commercially restricted from being sourced natively. [16]
Outside Asia, T. sinensis is valued more as a large ornamental tree for its haggard aspect. [8] [17] It is by far the most cold-tolerant species in the Meliaceae and the only member of the family that can be cultivated successfully in northern Europe.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the leaves of T. sinensis are beneficial for digestion and cough problems, and can help to stop bleeding. [18]
Recent researches find out that polysaccharides contained in T. sinensis leaves can protect liver cells in high-fat or high-carbohydrate diets. [19] [20] Quercetin extracted from leaves is found a natural antioxidant, and can act as a cancer preventive. [21]
The leaves of T. sinensis has a relative high content of nitrite, which is about 157 to 160 mg/kg. [22] However, after boiling with water, the amount of nitrite left is only about 7 mg/kg, which is safe to eat. Because the content of nitrite will increase as time passes, T. sinensis leaves are not suitable for long time storage.
The quercetin contained in T. sinensis leaves can induce cell cycle arrest and lead to apoptosis of cells. [23]
In Chinese literature, Toona sinensis is often used symbolically, with a mature tree representing a father. This manifests itself occasionally when expressing best wishes to a friend's father and mother in a letter, where one can write "wishing your Toona sinensis and daylily are strong and happy" (simplified Chinese :椿萱并茂; traditional Chinese :椿萱並茂; pinyin :chūnxuānbìngmào), with Toona sinensis metaphorically referring to the father and daylily to the mother.
Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus Swietenia, indigenous to the Americas and part of the pantropical chinaberry family, Meliaceae. Mahogany is used commercially for a wide variety of goods, due to its coloring and durable nature. It is naturally found within the Americas, but has also been imported to plantations across Asia and Oceania. The mahogany trade may have begun as early as the 16th century and flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries. In certain countries, mahogany is considered an invasive species.
Azadirachta indica, commonly known as neem, margosa, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of two species in the genus Azadirachta. It is native to the Indian subcontinent and to parts of Southeast Asia, but is naturalized and grown around the world in tropical and subtropical areas. Its fruits and seeds are the source of neem oil. Nim is a Hindustani noun derived from Sanskrit nimba (निंब).
Meliaceae, the mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs in the order Sapindales.
Spinach is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and Western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed either fresh, or after storage using preservation techniques by canning, freezing, or dehydration. It may be eaten cooked or raw, and the taste differs considerably; the high oxalate content may be reduced by steaming.
Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or specialized reproductive structures, which are sometimes called vegetative propagules.
Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves, leaf buds, and stems can be used to produce tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree.
The curry tree or Bergera koenigii, is a tropical and sub-tropical tree in the family Rutaceae, native to Asia. The plant is also sometimes called sweet neem, though M. koenigii is in a different family to neem, Azadirachta indica, which is in the related family Meliaceae.
Nelumbo nucifera, also known as sacred lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called a water lily, though this more often refers to members of the family Nymphaeaceae.
Toona, commonly known as redcedar, toon or toona, tooni is a genus in the mahogany family, Meliaceae, native from Afghanistan south to India, and east to North Korea, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. In older texts, the genus was often incorporated within a wider circumscription of the related genus Cedrela, but that genus is now restricted to species from the Americas.
Wisteria sinensis, commonly known as the Chinese wisteria, is a species of flowering plant in the pea family, native to China, in the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Yunnan. Growing 20–30 m (66–98 ft) tall, it is a deciduous vine. It is widely cultivated in temperate regions for its twisting stems and masses of scented flowers in hanging racemes, in spring.
Swietenia is a genus of trees in the chinaberry family, Meliaceae. It occurs natively in the Neotropics, from southern Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America south to Bolivia. The genus is named for Dutch-Austrian physician Gerard van Swieten (1700–1772). The wood of Swietenia trees is known as mahogany.
Bauhinia variegata is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. It is native to an area from China through Southeast Asia to the Indian subcontinent. Common names include orchid tree and mountain ebony.
Alloxylon flammeum, commonly known as the Queensland tree waratah or red silky oak, is a medium-sized tree of the family Proteaceae found in the Queensland tropical rain forests of northeastern Australia. It has shiny green elliptical leaves up to 18 cm (7.1 in) long, and prominent orange-red inflorescences that appear from August to October, followed by rectangular woody seed pods that ripen in February and March. Juvenile plants have large deeply lobed pinnate leaves. Previously known as Oreocallis wickhamii, the initial specimen turned out to be a different species to the one cultivated and hence a new scientific name was required. Described formally by Peter Weston and Mike Crisp in 1991, A. flammeum was designated the type species of the genus Alloxylon. This genus contains the four species previously classified in Oreocallis that are found in Australasia.
Toona ciliata is a forest tree in the mahogany family which grows throughout South Asia from Afghanistan to Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Underground stems are modified plant parts that derive from stem tissue but exist under the soil surface. They function as storage tissues for food and nutrients, facilitate the propagation of new clones, and aid in perennation. Types of underground stems include bulbs, corms, rhizomes, stolons, and tubers.
Swietenia macrophylla, commonly known as mahogany, Honduran mahogany, Honduras mahogany, or big-leaf mahogany is a species of plant in the Meliaceae family. It is one of three species that yields genuine mahogany timber (Swietenia), the others being Swietenia mahagoni and Swietenia humilis. It is native to South America, Mexico and Central America, but naturalized in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Hawaii, and cultivated in plantations and wind-breaks elsewhere.
Celtis sinensis is a species of flowering plant in the hemp family, Cannabaceae, that is native to slopes in East Asia.
Chukrasia tabularis, the Indian mahogany, is a deciduous, tropical forest tree species in the family Meliaceae. It is native to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. Also introduced to many western countries such as Cameroon, Costa Rica, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, South Africa, and United States.
Toona sureni is a species of tree in the mahogany family. It is native to South Asia, Indochina, Malesia, China, and Papua New Guinea. It is commonly known as the suren toon, surian, limpaga, iron redwood or the red cedar. It is also known as the Indonesian mahogany or the Vietnamese mahogany. The species is a valuable timber tree.
Hypericum foliosum, the shining St John's wort, is a species of flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae. It is a bushy shrub endemic to the Portuguese Azores Islands with golden yellow petals and many stems. The species was described by William Aiton in 1789 and was later placed into section Androsaemum of the genus Hypericum by Norman Robson in 1984. It has a diverse essential oil profile made up mostly of monoterpene hydrocarbons, and significant concentrations of various medicinally useful phenols and carotenoids. Populations of the plant are small in number, but quick to colonize cleared areas like groves, landslide areas, and volcanic ash deposits. It is parasitized by fungus and by moth species, but is not considered endangered by the IUCN. H. foliosum is used in traditional medicine on the Azores for diuretic, hepatoprotective, and antihypertensive purposes. It also has in vitro antibiotic and antioxidizing capabilities.
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