Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr., J. Washington Acad. Sci. 6:47. 1916 (syn. (≡) Albizia saman (Jacq.) F. Muell.; (≡) Inga saman (Jacq.) Willd.; (≡) Mimosa saman Jacq. (basionym); (≡) Pithecellobium saman (Jacq.) Benth.); 
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al-BIZ-ee-uh — named for Filipo del Albizzi, Florentine nobleman
sah-MANsaman is a South American name for the plant
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commonly known as
: cow tamarind, coco tamarind, french tamarind, genisaro, monkeypod, monkey-pod tree, porrain tree, rain tree, saman tree, zaman • Bengali: বিলাতি শিরীষ bilati siris • Hindi: विलायती शिरीष vilaiti siris • Malayalam: മഴമരം mazhamaram, ഉറക്കംതൂങ്ങമരം urakkamthuungamaram • Marathi: गुलाबी शिरीष gulabi siris, विलायती शिरीष vilaiti siris • Tamil: சீமைவாகை cimaivakai • Telugu: దోరిసెన dorisena
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Native to: tropical America; naturalized / cultivated elsewhere in tropics
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Huge and Handsome with a huge canopy of its foliage. It is planted in many residential complex as avenue trees.
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Old trees in Ritwik Ghatak Movie (Cloud-Capped Star; 1960):
I was watching an older Ritwik Ghatak movie (Cloud-Capped Star; 1960), and a couple of scenes included views of a road flanked by large trees (see attached screenshot). As you likely know, Ghatak was a Bengali director, and this movie was filmed in West Bengal. I wrote to Dorrie Rosen at the New York Botanical Garden to see if she could identify the tree from this distant view (and w/o closeup images of the leaves, etc.). As can be read from the thread of comments, she was guessing Banyan, but also suggested it could be a Devil tree (Alstonia scholaris) or Ficus religiosa syn. Urostigma religiosum (sacred Bodhi tree). Because we don’t have close-ups of the foliage, she suggested contacting an Indian expert. So … any idea what this tree is? This is mostly out of curiosity, rather than any scientific need.


– The canopy size shape and branching pattern suggest Rain Tree, Samanea saman though it is just a guess.


It looks like Albizia sp. may be Albizia saman as replies are indicating. I am remembering the words of Traditional Healers when they identify trees in far hills with the help of canopy shape. They say Albizia as Sirsa i.e. Sir-Sa -Head like.


Certainly Samanea saman (Rain tree)- also called Vilaiti Sirsi in Kolkata- as I have stayed in Kolkata for a long time..



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Albizia julibrissin (Durazz.) from Hooghly:
Attaching images of what i think is Albizia julibrissin Durazz. I don’t know its Bengali name :(Species : Albizia julibrissin Durazz.

Habit & Habitat : Big tree, roadside plantation
Date : 09-04-2012, 4.35 p.m.

Place : Hooghly, WB


It looks like samanea saman, the rain tree, looking at the leaves.

I just wanted to know how to differentiate the two.


Yes it is samanea saman.


See the leaflets and bark texture for the difference between Samanea saman and Albizia julibrissin


Yes Albizia saman (Syn Samanea saman)



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Fabaceae – Mimosoideae – Bangalore – RA – Samanea saman – Rain Tree:   Large, handsome and spreading, the Rain Tree is easily recognised by its umbrella like canopy of evergreen, feathery foliage and puffs of pink flowers.

It is frequently planted in groups or as an avenue because of its ability to keep its symmetrical conformation in spite of prevailing winds. It is a tree of rapid growth, brought originally from Central America to Sri Lanka and forwarded from there because it was considered to be a tree of great value for railway fuel.
It often reaches a height of 27 m. and the strong, spreading branches may be nearly as long.
The bark is dark grey, often bearing horizontal weals and the trunk frequently branches quite low down. From March to May and again towards the end of the year the green canopy is dotted all over with pink and white. During the rest of the year, too, there are usually quite a few flowers to be seen. The flowers appear like round, silken tufts, but actually each flower stalk bears one central and a surrounding circlet of florets, up to twenty in number. Each has a tube-shaped calyx and a tiny, yellow-lobed, crimson trumpet; bunches of long stamens, half pink and half white, protrude from each. The long, heavy leaves are twice pinnate and each pinna, of which there are four to eight pairs, bears from three to seven pairs of leaflets. These are oval and have no stalks, becoming larger and more curved towards the end. on its thickened base so that the leaves all lie sideways.
In Malaysia this drooping of the leaves is considered to portend rain and is the explanation of the name Rain Tree, Hujan-hujan meaning “rain”, but in India it is believed that the name was given because of a curious habit possessed by the tree of intermittently spraying the ground beneath with moisture. Later it was discovered that this was caused by multitudinous minute insects. The fruit is a fleshy pod, sweet to the taste and much relished by squirrels, horses and cattle

 


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Fabaceae-Mimosoideae (Mimosaceae) Week: Samanea saman Pune: Samanea saman
The Rain tree


Extremely beautiful pics …, I have seen this planted in our area. Such a beauty… Panipat-132103 Haryana


al-BIZ-ee-uh — named for Filipo del Albizzi, Florentine nobleman
sah-MANsaman is a South American name for the plant
Jan 14, 2007 … in Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Udyan (a.k.a. Powai Gardens), Mumbai
commonly known as: cow tamarind, coco tamarind, french tamarind, genisaro, monkeypod, monkey-pod tree, porrain tree, rain tree, saman tree, zaman • Bengali: বিলাতি শিরীষ bilati siris • Hindi: विलायती शिरीष vilaiti siris • Malayalam: മഴമരം mazhamaram, ഉറക്കംതൂങ്ങമരം urakkamthuungamaram • Marathi: गुलाबी शिरीष gulabi siris, विलायती शिरीष vilaiti siris • Tamil: சீமைவாகை cimaivakai • Telugu: దోరిసెన dorisena
Native to: tropical America; naturalized / cultivated elsewhere in tropics
References: Flowers of IndiaWikipediaTropilabDave’s GardenEcoPort
more views: Dec 29, 2007 … in a temple premises along Ghodbunder Road near Gaimukh, Thane, Maharashtra
Jan 20, 2008 … at Veermata Jeejabai Bhosale Udyan, Mumbai
Jun 2, 2007 … at Vaghbil, Thane, Maharashtra

Apr 7, 2008 … at Vaghbil, Thane, Maharashtra


Known popularly as Samanea saman … synonym of Albizia saman as put at The Plants List.
Surprising to find that it is not planted in your region.


its very common here, planted as avenue tree for its fast growing nature…

well known as Samanea saman or Rain tree


Saman or Rain tree has been planted all over Pune along d road sides.


This tree needs high moisture, higher levels of rain (as opposed to the mimosa with similar flowers and different leaf structure and size that grows in USA and is considered a weed) … this graceful tree providing shade, nitrogen fixing for the local soil, seeds edible for some birds and animals, nesting sites for birds of many different species, and it does not topple over in the KAL boishakhi storms in Bengal… none toppled in hurricane Aila (at least not that I saw nor was one reported or shown on TV as having lost its footing) …
Not native, but it has endeared itself … we have some very graceful grandfather trees in Dhakuria lakes… among other spots in the city…



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Fabaceae-Mimosoideae (Mimosaceae) Week :: Samanea saman at Mumbai:
Very common tree here in Mumbai. Huge and Handsome with a huge canopy of its foliage. It is planted in many residential complex as avenue trees.
Common name: Rain Tree.
Bot. name: Samanea saman 
Family: Mimosaceae
Habitat: Cultivated



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RAIN TREE: Tree
RAIN TREE Samanea saman (Mimosaceae) शिरीष 13/12/12 near straling cinema, Fort, Mumbai



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SL 60 281113 : Attachments (1). 3 posts by 3 authors.
Please ID this leguminous shrub with pink flowers. Photo was taken in Sri Lanka in Oct 2012.

Samanea saman, common name Rain Tree.


Yes, it is the beautiful Rain Tree.



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Interesting plants of AJCB Indian Botanic Garden: RAIN TREE (Albizia saman), Shibpur, Howrah: SCFEB26 : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (2).

Albizia saman F.Muell.
This plant is that is native to the Neotropics. It has been widely introduced to South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii.
Common names include saman, rain tree and monkeypod etc.
Saman is a wide-canopied tree with a large symmetrical crown. It usually reaches a height of 25 m (82 ft) and a diameter of 40 m (130 ft). The leaves fold in rainy weather and in the evening, hence the name “rain tree” and “five o’clock tree” (Pukul Lima) in Malay. Several lineages of this tree are available, e.g., with reddish pink and creamish golden colored flowers.


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As U all may b aware the  sick/infected Raintrees in Mumbai, During a Tree Walk one of the participant was discussing this issue and luckily I learnt that the Mumbai’s Garden Dept. has taken up dis issue very seriously and have tried the remedy in Kandivli west area, I haven’t got a chance to visit it, meanwhile, sharing the link on insect Mealybug for your kind reading,

I have attached mobile pix of fallen branch of rain tree, for your ready ref. please,


Thank you very much Madam. We too face the threat of mealybug. All our Hibiscus plants are heavily infested.



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efloraofindia:”For Id” wild plant at Pune :14052014: MR-5 : 5 posts by 3 authors. Attachments (1).
May 2014 Pune

Requesting Id of this small wild plant growing very slowly, not flowered as yet


Can this be Calliandra emarginata, I may well be wrong though!


It looks like a seedling of rain tree, Samanea saman


Thank you … for the Id



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mealy bug infestations of rain trees and its foe Lady Bird Beetle : 5 posts by 3 authors. Attachments (3).

This is not fungal infection it is mealy bug infection [quite often you get on Jasvant [shoe flower..Hibiscus]
Infact fungal infection sometimes control mealy Bug
mealy bug is the pest on rain trees and its foe is Lady Bird Beetle
go thr’ the link to know what they are doing
if any of you get involved, let me know what is happening
I am sending this mail to all because Rain trees are everywhere in Mumbai and probably 100 years old..so it affects us all… I have not send the details of life cycles as I do not want to bore you all..
Remember chemical pestcides will kill beneficiary insects which help in biocontorll SO NO NO TO CHEMICAL PESTICDES
Biopesticides for mealy bugs are Lady Bird Beetles and their larvae, Lacewings, Noctuid Mths and their caterpillar, Blue Butterfly caterpillar, Chalcid wasps. fungus.
If you want more info contact Dr Shubhalaxmi of BNHS AND GOOGLE… LOTS OF INFO ON NET- Mumbai Mirror

I agree with Dr. Usha Desai. It is mealy bug and very difficult to get rid of it. here in Delhi it has infested hundreds of trees and shrubs. It grows on hibiscus plant also. This year I saw that disappeared from hibiscus plants in my area,


Many thanks for appreciating my mail… someone on our group [TAW] HAD RAISED THIS QUERRY….so I mailed back to them but by mistake put indiatreepix and not treeappreciationmumbai…it shows I am getting old… just completed 75 years on 8th Feb. Also this 25th May we completed 50 tree walks. Last TAW WAS ON Mangroves… we divided in to 2 batches… one was given explanation re how mangroves deal with salinity,hypoxia,stability in wet land… evolution… symbiotic relationship with coral reef…..etc. [through posters and photographs]. other batch was guided through the mangorves by Renee and later we took a long walk thr mangrove forest which mainly consisted of one species [Avicenia marina].. the walk ended on an island which had some unusual terrestrial species like Wattakaka volubilis with dry mustache like pods dispersing hairy seeds… the dry pods showed fish scale like pattern[due to the pressure of seeds compactly fitted.. it was fascinating]

My Dear …, We thank you for allowing us to post the mails re our walks.


Thanks, …, What you & your team are doing is simply great.
It is nice that you are able to do at such a serene age, which I never knew.
Efloraofindia will always thank you for this splendid efforts.


Images by tspkumar

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TSPNOV2015-33: Images of Samanea saman (Fabaceae) : 2 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (7)

It is my pleasure to share few images of Samanea saman (Fabaceae)
Habit:  Large tree
Habitat: Cultivated.
Sighting: Chikmagalur, Karnataka about 1000 msl.

Date: 31-03-2014, 19-05-2015, 09-02-2015 and 01-03-2015


very nice. i would love to see the pods when they ripen and to know if they are sticky to touch when ripe?



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Albizia saman : For Validation : Kenya : 24DEC14 : AK-46 : 3 posts by 3 authors. Attachments (2)

Small tree seen in Nairobi on 21/1/2009.

All this while, I had thought it to be Albizia saman.
But recently found that the leaves are different, pointed at the end.

Could this be another Species?


I feel your ID is correct


efi page on Samanea saman (syn. (≡) Albizia saman (Jacq.) F. Muell.);


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Fwd: OBITUARY TO RAIN TREE ( SAMANEA SAMAN ) : 4 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (2)

I studied in a school at Netrakona ( now Bangladesh ) from standard -1 to 10. (that is from 1953 to 1963).There were five majestic Rain trees in the school campus. I can not think about my school without these trees. This school was established in 1889. I am talking about Dutt High School (the name is in honour of a famous civil servant and scholar R C Dutt)

I left that place for India in 1964. But the Rain Trees were in my memory. After the liberation of East Pakistan and formation of Bangladesh, I visited my school in 1972 and was shocked to see that the trees were no longer there.
At Cooch Behar there were many old Rain Trees on the road side. Few were there near the Air Port (not functional since 1990). Open bill stork used to make nest on those trees. In the name of making the air port functional all these tress have been sacrificed. Open bill stork still make nests in the general area on alternative trees.
Recently I have seen a smart move by an intelligent house owner. His house is next to the tree on the road side. But the tree is not on his compound. He thought of eliminating this tree so that his house can be expanded.. His move was to see that the tree is dead and the cut it as a dead tree. He made two incisions around the main stem of this tree With this action the tree will die after some time and he will remove it as a dead tree. Quite a smart move.
Attaching two images of this tree under death sentence. In the first image you see the tree which gives shade to the people nearby. And in the next image you see the two incisions around the main stem of the tree.
I have seen more than 200 trees in last 13 years which have been fell. Images some of these trees are with me

how sad. we have story of another kind of mercenary  activities on rain tree. apparently the lac insects like its sap

The Telegraph Kolkata ran this and other such stories last few years
one such is this:  What’s killing the trees  Scores of fully-grown trees in the township and on VIP Road are in the throes of unnatural death.

Look outside your window and chances are that you’ll see a tall tree but bereft of leaves. Its thin branches look like the ominous fingers of a witch and its trunk is a ghostly white. 

No, it’s not Halloween but World Environment Day. But instead of green, Salt Lake is wearing white.
Hundreds of trees, particularly Sirish (Albizia lebbeck), are dying. The phenomenon has been noticeable for a few months now
 and the forest department believes that they are under the attack of  some insects. But investigation is on and officials are not ruling the possibility of a racket out to kill the trees and sell its precious lac either. Lac is the scarlet resinous secretion of several species of lac insects which are known to attack trees. etc etc Telegraph India
 and shellac is used as a fixative in the french perfumery industry, and that may be killing our trees. Such a shame. why cant people be honest and upfront, plant trees for their own specific purposes?



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SYMBIOSIS : 1225 : 6 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (1)
Attaching a collage of Red base Jezebel visiting flowers of Samanea saman. (RAIN TREE)

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(01/May/2021 ART 1) Is this Samanea saman?: 6 images.

Dates: 24th April and 1st May, 2021

Location: Varathamanathi Dam, Palani, Dindigul District, Tamil Nadu

Can you please confirm if this is Samanea saman?


Absolutely it’s


Which is the latest name Albizzia saman or  S.saman. In the plant list it is A.saman.


There are indeed notes such as “It was formerly classified as Samanea saman, Pithecellobium saman and Emerolobium saman.”  Thanks for pointing out the current name.


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Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr.: 7 very high res. images.

Location: The Oberoi, Bengaluru, India
Date: 24 March 2023
Altitude: 940m.

Habitat : Cultivated


Come once to  SRCM Heartfulness Meditation Center, Kanha Village, Chegur, Telangana 509325


Yes


Come once to  SRCM Heartfulness Meditation Center, Kanha Village, Chegur, Telangana 509325



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in March & August to Oct. in Kolkata; Beginning to flower (22/2/08) in Bangalore; Few early flowers being seen (26/2/08) in Pune; JVPD Scheme/Andheri, Mumbai- 31/3/08; in Pune- April first fortnight; March’09- Pune; from Kamakshya Hills Assam- June’09?; Beautiful Trees & Shrubs of Calcutta by Sh. R.K. Chakraverty & S.K.Jain states that it starts flowering from early spring (Feb.- March) and continues spordically up to late Mansoon (September).

rain tree buds & flowers – efloraofindia | Google Groups
tre for ID C – indiantreepix | Google Groups
Is it Sirish? – indiantreepix | Google Groups
Native and non native Shirish – indiantreepix | Google Groups
Is this rain tree? – indiantreepix | Google Groups
Jungle Myna basking at Vilaiti Siris/ Rain tree (Samanea saman) – indiantreepix | Google Groups
Vilaiti Siris/ Rain Tree (Samanea saman) – indiantreepix | Google Groups


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Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr. :: Waghbil, Thane :: Apr 7, 2008 · JUN23 DV257: 2 images.

Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr.
Waghbil, Thane :: Apr 7, 2008 · 6:22 PM IST :: about 3 m (10 ft) asl

Many thanks to Radha Veach for validating the ID at iNaturalist



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References: