''Monoon longifolium'', the false ashoka, also commonly known by its synonym ''
Polyalthia
''Polyalthia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. There are approximately 90 species distributed from Africa to Asia and the Pacific. longifolia'', is an Asian small tree species in the family
Annonaceae
The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...
. It is native to southern India and Sri Lanka, but has been widely introduced elsewhere in tropical Asia.
[Plants of the World Online (POWO): ''Monoon longifolium'' (Sonn.) B.Xue & R.M.K.Saunders (retrieved 30 August 2020)]
/ref> This evergreen tree is known to grow over 20 m. in height and is commonly planted due to its effectiveness in alleviating noise pollution
Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is main ...
. It exhibits symmetrical pyramidal growth with willowy weeping pendulous branches and long narrow lanceolate leaves with undulate margins.
''Monoon longifolium'' is sometimes incorrectly identified as the ashoka tree (''Saraca indica
''Saraca indica'', commonly known as the asoka tree, ashok or simply asoca, is a plant belonging to the subfamily Detarioideae of the family Fabaceae. The original plant specimen from which Carl Linnaeus described the species came from Java, but ...
'') because of the close resemblance of both trees. It can appear to have no branches, but in fact a ''M. longifolium'' allowed to grow naturally (without trimming the branches out for decorative reasons) grows into a normal large tree giving plenty of shade.
Common names
Common names include false ashoka, the Buddha tree, Indian mast tree, and Indian fir tree. Its names in other languages include ''Ashoka'' in Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, ''Unboi'' (উনবৈ) or ''Debadaru'' (দেৱদাৰু) in Assamese, ''Debdaru'' in Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
and Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, ''Asopalav'' (Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
), ''Glodogan tiang'' (Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesian ...
), ''Ashok'' in Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
and ''Nettilinkam'' நெட்டிலிங்கம் in Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
, and ''araNamaram'': അരണമരം (Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
). ಕಂಬದ ಮರ Kambada mara in Kannada
In British India
The False ashoka was cultivated and gained popularity in British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
for nostalgic reasons because it resembled the tall, harrow Italian cypress
''Cupressus sempervirens'', the Mediterranean cypress (also known as Italian cypress, Tuscan cypress, Persian cypress, or pencil pine), is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region, in northeast Libya, southern Albania, sou ...
; it also was used for ships' masts. It does not require pruning in order to maintain its tall, straight, main trunk with short, drooping branches.
Distribution
Found natively in India and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. It is introduced in gardens in many tropical countries around the world. It is, for example, widely used in parts of Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
in Indonesia and the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
.
Leaves
Emerging leaves have a coppery brown pigmentation; as the leaves grow older, the color becomes a light green and, finally, a dark green. The leaves are lanceolate
The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...
and have wavy edges. The leaves are larval food plant of the tailed jay and the kite swallowtail butterflies.
Flowering
In spring, the tree is covered with delicate star-like pale green flowers. The flowering period lasts for a short period, usually two to three weeks.
Fruit is borne in clusters of 10–20, initially green but turning purple or black when ripe. These are eaten by birds such as the Asian koel
The Asian koel (''Eudynamys scolopaceus'') is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes. It is found in the Indian Subcontinent, China, and Southeast Asia. It forms a superspecies with the closely related black-billed koels, and ...
, ''Eudynamys scolopaceus'', and fruit bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...
s, including flying fox
''Pteropus'' (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names.
They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Aust ...
es.
Uses
The leaves are used for ornamental decoration during festivals. The tree is a focal point in gardens throughout India. The tree can be pruned into various shapes and maintained in required sizes. The flexible, straight and light-weight trunks were once used in the making of masts for sailing ships. Thus, the tree is also known as the Mast Tree. Today, its wood is mostly used for manufacturing small articles such as pencils, boxes, matchsticks, etc. The oil of the seed has been confirmed to possess anti-oxidant, anti-lipooxygenase and antimicrobial (against various microbe strains) activities, among others.[Atolani O.; Areh E.T.; Oguntoye O.S.; et al., 2019 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00044-019-02301-z] Bankole et al 2016 find ''M. longifolium'' does control chloroquine resistant strains of ''Plasmodium berghei'' ANKA in mouse
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
to some degree but is not an effective treatment.
Methanol
Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is a ...
ic extracts of ''Monoon longifolium'' have yielded 20 known and two new organic compounds, some of which show cytotoxic
Cytotoxicity is the quality of being toxic to cells. Examples of toxic agents are an immune cell or some types of venom, e.g. from the puff adder (''Bitis arietans'') or brown recluse spider (''Loxosceles reclusa'').
Cell physiology
Treating cells ...
properties.
The fatty acid composition of the seed has also been reported
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q42707873, from2=Q957447
Flora of India (region)
longifolium