Adenanthera pavonina MIMOSACEAE
Synonym: Adenanthera gersenii
Common names: Red bead tree, coral wood, red sandalwood
Dhivehi name: Madhoshi
Status: Common; found as a component of the closed forests of Barringtonia asiaticaand coconut forests; occasionally grows amidst shrubs of Hibiscus tiliaceus
Description: A medium to large sized deciduous tree that grows up to 20 m tall.Trunk is straight with round but uneven and spreading crown. Multiple stems arecommon. Bark smooth with fissures, is brown or greyish in colour and has largenumber of lichens. Leaves are bipinnate with two to seven pairs of leaflets, which are pale green in colour, oval-oblong in shape with blunt tip and alternate in arrangementalong the branches. Leaves turn yellow with age. Flowers are small, star shaped with five petals, yellow in colour, fragrant and are borne in slender, dense racemes,which look like rat tails. Fruit is a pod, curved, with slight constriction between seeds,black when ripen and twist upon drying to show seeds. Eight to twelve seeds arepresent in a pod. Each seed is about 0.9 cm wide, dark to bright red, shiny, lens-shaped and extremely hard. Ripened pod remains attached to the tree for a longtime.
Uses: Timber is hard, strong reddish and durable. In Maldives it is used to build any part of a boat (dhoni). It is also used in carpentry. Although raw seeds are toxic andmay cause intoxication, roasted seeds are commonly eaten and are also powdered to make coffee. Young leaves are eaten as vegetables. Children love to collect the seedsto use them in two of their games, namely, Ohvalhugondi and Thinhama. According to some of the elders, seeds were used in the past to weigh gold since nearly all the seedshave a uniform weight of 0.25 grams. The species is a nitrogen fixer so can improvesoil nitrogen content.
Ecology, propagation and management: Adenanthera pavonina is found growing on a variety of soils from deep, well-drained to shallow and rocky soils, but prefers neutralor slightly acidic soil. It is capable of quickly forming large colonies in moist closedforests, where the trunk grows very straight. It can be propagated from seed and theseedlings have epigeal germination. Since the seed coat is extremely hard, scarifyingthe seed surface or immersing the seeds in boiling water for one minute is requiredto increase the rate and reduce the time of germination, which otherwise may take upto 12 months. Nursery stock out-plants well. Growth rate is fast after the first year.