Albizia saman Totally Explained

Everything about Albizia Saman totally explained

Albizia saman is known under a wide range of common names, such Saman, Rain Tree or Monkey Pod (see also below). It is often placed in the genus Samanea, which by yet other authors is subsumed in Albizia entirely. This legume tree is native to the mainland neotropics, from Mexico south to Peru and Brazil, but has been widely introduced to the Pacific islands, including Hawaiʻi, where it's categorized as an invasive species.
Saman is a wide-canopied tree with a large symmetrical crown. It usually reaches a height of 25 meters and a diameter of 40 meters. Several lineages of this tree are available for example with reddish pink and creamish golden colored flowers.
During his 1799-1804 travels in the Americas, Alexander von Humboldt encountered a giant Saman tree near Maracay (Venezuela). He measured the circumference of the parasol-shaped crown at 576 ft (about 180.8 m), its diameter at around 190 ft (about 59.6 m), on a trunk at 9 ft (about 2.8 m) in diameter and reaching just 60 ft (nearly 19 m) in height. Humboldt mentioned that the tree was reported to have changed little since the Spanish colonization of Venezuela; he estimated the Saman to be as old as the famous Canary Islands Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco) of Icod de los Vinos on Tenerife.
The tree, called Samán del Guère (transcribed Zamang del Guayre by von Humboldt) still stands today and is a Venezuelan national treasure. Just like the dragon tree on Tenerife, the age of the Saman in Venezuela is rather indeterminate. As von Humboldt's report makes clear, according to local tradition it would be older than 500 years today, which is rather outstanding by the genus' standards. It is certain however than the tree is quite more than 200 years old today. But it's one exceptional individual; even the well-learned von Humboldt couldn't believe it was actually the same species as the Saman trees he knew from the greenhouses at Schönbrunn Castle.

Gallery

Image:During_falling_leaf_period_Samanea_saman.jpg|During falling leaf period.
Kolkata, West Bengal (India). Image:Bark- Black-rumped Flameback I IMG 9087.jpg|Black-rumped Flameback (Dinopium benghalense) on Rain Tree bark.
Kolkata, West Bengal (India). Image:P1011477.JPG|Golden-flowered Rain Tree.
Ranchi, Jharkhand (India). Image:Pods I IMG 3110.jpg|Pods.
Kolkata, West Bengal (India).

Names

Albizia saman is a well-known tree, rivalled perhaps only by Lebbeck and Pink Siris among its genus. It is well-attested in many languages and has a bunch of local names in its native range. Most names that originated in Europe (where the tree hardly grows anywhere) are some variety of "Rain Tree". The original name, Saman - known in many languages and used for the specific name - derives from zamang, meaning "Mimosoideae tree" in some Cariban language of northern Venezuela, Cow Tamarind, East Indian Walnut. ť Grenada: Coco Tamarind

Acacia propinqua A.Rich. ť Acacia propinqua Pedley is a synonym of Acacia mimula

Albizzia saman (Jacq.) Merr. (orth.var)

Calliandra saman (Jacq.) Griseb.

Enterolobium sama] (Jacq.) Prain

Feuilleea saman (Jacq.) Kuntze

Inga cinerea Willd.

Inga salutaris Kunth

Inga saman (Jacq.) Willd.

Mimosa pubifera Poir.

Mimosa saman Jacq.

Pithecellobium cinereum Benth.

Pithecellobium saman (Jacq.) Benth.

Pithecellobium saman var. saman (Jacq.) Benth.

Pithecolobium saman (Jacq.) Benth.

Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr.

Zygia saman (Jacq.) A.Lyons

Footnotes

Further Information

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