Description: The specimen located just north of the zoo's northern most parking area. This large tree with a medium growth rate develops long and relatively straight boles in closed forest, but as an open-grown tree, tends to have short boles and spreading crowns. In their native range, these trees reach up to 100 feet in height. Because it grows somewhat more slowly than its fiercely competitive associates, the Burma padauk usually must survive years in the shade of other trees until a tree fall or other event creates a gap in the canopy through which it can grow. As a result, the species is not a dominant canopy species in its native range.

The species is closely related to Pterocarpus indicus and they can be difficult to distinguish. In fact, the specimen at Caribbeaqn Gardens was misidentified by several experts as P. indicus. These two species share ranges in the wild and natural variation in seeds also contribute to confusion in identifiying these species in the wild.

Range: Myanmar, northern Thailand, Kampuchea, and into Vietnam

Recommended LINKS & BOOKS

A great resource for botanical information is Botanica which you can order from Amazon.com at this link. This text features beautiful color photos and descriptions of over 10,000 garden plants. It is also available to order on CD from Canada.