How to Grow and Care for Padauk

Burmese rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus) is a deciduous tree and grows 24 to 30 m tall. It is a tropical species native to Asia and can tolerate neither drought nor frost. Prized for its beautiful wood, burmese rosewood makes an excellent shade tree and improves the soil where it is planted by repairing nutrient deficiencies. It is also the national flower of Myanmar!

Dragonsblood tree is named for a red juice produced by its bark, which hardens into a resin called “dragon's blood.” This tropical tree is similar to the mangrove in appearance and occupies a similar ecological niche, growing in swamps and coastal forests. It uses symbiotic bacteria to fix nitrogen, enriching soils for itself and nearby plants.

Red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus) is a tree native to India that is highly prized for its hard, deep red wood - for which it is named. Unlike many sandalwoods, the timber from red sandalwood isn't especially aromatic, although it is commonly used in incense, in place of its more aromatic and expensive sandalwood cousins.

It is a deciduous tree usually growing to 16 m tall with dark brown bark and a high wide-crowned canopy of shiny compound leaves. In favoured wetter locations the trees are typically about 18–19 m tall. The leaves appear at the time of the flowers or shortly afterwards. They are alternate deep green imparipinnate with 11-19 subopposite to alternate leaflets the leaflets 2.5–7 cm long and 2–4.5 cm broad. It produces an abundance of scented orange-yellow flowers in panicles 10–20 cm long; flowering is in the spring. In southern Africa this is usually just at the end of the dry season often about mid-fall. The pod is 2–3 cm diameter surrounded by a circular wing 8–12 cm diameter reminiscent of a brown fried egg and containing a single seed. This brown papery and spiky seed pod stays on long after the leaves have fallen. In poorly drained locations the tree can still grow but it becomes more open in shape with leaves on the end of long branches - a 'stag-headed' appearance.