''Albizia lebbeck'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

of ''

Albizia ''Albizia'' is a genus of more than 160 species of mostly fast-growing subtropical and tropical trees and shrubs in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae. The genus is pantropical, occurring in Asia, Africa, Madagascar, America and A ...

'', native to

Indomalaya The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Indi ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

and

Northern Australia The unofficial geographic term Northern Australia includes those parts of Queensland and Western Australia north of latitude 26° and all of the Northern Territory. Those local government areas of Western Australia and Queensland that lie p ...

USDA (1994) and widely cultivated and

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

in other

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north a ...

regions. English names for it include Sirisa, Siris, lebbeck, lebbek tree, flea tree, frywood, koko and woman's tongue tree. The latter name is a play on the sound the seeds make as they rattle inside the pods. Being one of the most widespread and common species of ''Albizia'' worldwide, it is often simply called siris or Sirisa though this name may refer to any locally common member of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Description

It is a

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

growing to a height of 18–30 m tall with a trunk 50 cm to 1 m in diameter. The

leaves A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

are bipinnate, 7.5–15 cm long, with one to four pairs of pinnae, each pinna with 6–18 leaflets. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanis ...

s are white, with numerous 2.5–3.8 cm long stamens, and very fragrant. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

is a pod 15–30 cm long and 2.5-5.0 cm broad, containing six to twelve

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosper ...

Name

''Mimosa speciosa'' as described by

Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin (16 February 172726 October 1817) was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany. Biography Born in Leiden in the Netherlands, he studied medicine at Leiden University, then moved first to Par ...

refers to ''Albizia lebbeck''. The ''Mimosa speciosa'' of

Carl Peter Thunberg Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Swedish naturalist and an "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus. After studying under Linnaeus at Uppsala U ...

, however, is '' Albizia julibrissin''. The name Lebbeck is from Arabic. In

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

, the tree is known as 'Sirisa' means A fertile region Sirsi In

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

, the tree is known as 'vaagai' as the ancient kings of the Sangam Age had worn the garland made by this flower to celebrate victory in battles , with the word 'vaagai' meaning 'victory' 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, na ...

. In the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

and certain parts of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

this tree is known as a 'Shak Shak Tree' because of the sound the seeds make in the pod.

Uses

Its uses include environmental management,

forage Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term ''forage'' has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also use ...

, medicine and wood. It is cultivated as a shade tree in

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

.ILDIS (2005) In India and Pakistan, the tree is used to produce

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

. Wood from ''Albizia lebbeck'' has a density of 0.55-0.66 g/cm³ or higher. Even where it is not native, some indigenous

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpar ...

s are liable to utilize lebbeck as a food resource. For example, the

greater rhea The greater rhea (''Rhea americana'') is a species of flightless bird native to eastern South America. Other names for the greater rhea include the grey, common, or American rhea; ema (Portuguese); or ñandú ( Guaraní and Spanish). One of two ...

(''Rhea americana'') has been observed feeding on it in the

cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Ethnobotany

Lebbeck is an

astringent An astringent (sometimes called adstringent) is a chemical that shrinks or constricts body tissues. The word derives from the Latin ''adstringere'', which means "to bind fast". Calamine lotion, witch hazel, and yerba mansa, a Californian pla ...

, also used by some cultures to treat boils,

cough A cough is a sudden expulsion of air through the large breathing passages that can help clear them of fluids, irritants, foreign particles and microbes. As a protective reflex, coughing can be repetitive with the cough reflex following three ph ...

, to treat the eye,

flu Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...

gingivitis Gingivitis is a non-destructive disease that causes inflammation of the gums. The most common form of gingivitis, and the most common form of periodontal disease overall, is in response to bacterial biofilms (also called plaque) that is attached ...

, lung problems, pectoral problems, is used as a tonic, and is used to treat abdominal

tumor A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

s. The bark is used medicinally to treat

inflammation Inflammation (from la, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants, and is a protective response involving immune cells, blood vessels, and molec ...

. This information was obtained via ethnobotanical records, which are a reference to how a plant is used by indigenous peoples, not verifiable, scientific or medical evaluation of the effectiveness of these claims. ''Albizia lebbeck'' is also psychoactive..It is also very effective in migraine.

Taxonomy

The taxonomic history of ''A. lebbeck'' is somewhat convoluted. It was originally described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

as ''Mimosa lebbeck''. In its original description the ''Mimosa lebbeck'' was a large Acacia tree that grew in Egypt.

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...

placed the

in its present

, but other authors believed that the plant described by Linnaeus was the related '' Albizia kalkora'' as described by Prain (based on the ''Mimosa kalkora'' of

William Roxburgh William Roxburgh FRSE FRCPE FLS (3/29 June 1751 – 18 February 1815) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist who worked extensively in India, describing species and working on economic botany. He is known as the founding father of Indian botany. ...

), and erroneously referred to this species as ''Albizia lebbeck''. However,

Francisco Manuel Blanco Manuel María Blanco Ramos known as Manuel Blanco (1779 – 1845) was a Spanish friar and botanist. Biography Born in Navianos de Alba, Castilla y León, Spain, Blanco was a member of the Augustinian order of friars. His first assignment wa ...

used ''Mimosa lebbeck'' to refer to '' Albizia retusa'' ssp. ''retusa''. In addition, the specific epithet is occasionally misspelled ''lebbek''.USDA (1994), ILDIS (2005) Junior synonyms are: * ''Acacia lebbeck'' (L.)

Willd. Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was al ...

* ''Acacia macrophylla'' Bunge * ''Acacia speciosa'' (Jacq.) Willd. * ''Albizia latifolia'' B.Boivin * ''Albizia lebbeck'' (L.) Benth. var. ''leucoxylon'' Hassk. * ''Albizia lebbeck'' (L.) Benth. var. ''pubescens'' Haines * ''Albizia lebbeck'' (L.) Benth. var. ''rostrata'' Haines :''Albizia rostrata'' Miq. is '' Archidendron globosum''. * ''Feuilleea lebbeck'' (L.)

Kuntze Kuntze is a surname of German origin. People with that name include: * Carl Kuntze (1922-2006), Dutch rower who competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics * Edward J. Kuntze (1826-1870), Prussian-born American sculptor * Otto Kuntze (1843-1907), German ...

* ''Inga borbonica'' Hassk. * ''Inga leucoxylon'' Hassk. * ''Mimosa lebbeck'' L. * ''Mimosa lebbek'' L. (orth.var.) * ''Mimosa sirissa'' Roxb. * ''Mimosa speciosa'' Jacq. :''Mimosa speciosa'' Thunb. is '' Albizia julibrissin''. * ''Pithecellobium splitgerberianum''

Miq. Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (24 October 1811 – 23 January 1871) was a Dutch botanist, whose main focus of study was on the flora of the Dutch East Indies. Early life Miquel was born in Neuenhaus and studied medicine at the University of Groni ...

Independently, there also exists a genus named ''

Lebeckia ''Lebeckia'' is a genus of plants in the family Fabaceae native to the fynbos ( Cape Floristic Kingdom) of South Africa. Several members of ''Lebeckia'' were recently transferred to other genera ('' Calobota'' and '' Wiborgiella''). Members of '' ...

'', whose range is restricted to South Africa. It is not related to ''A. lebbeck'', but a member of the

Faboideae The Faboideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae, or Papilionaceae when this group of plants is treated as a family. This subfamily is widely ...

, a different legume subfamily.

Footnotes

References

* (1973): ''Albizia lebbeck'' (L.) Benth.. ''In: Flora of Pakistan'' (Vol. 36: Mimosaceae). University of Karachi, Karachi
HTML fulltext
* (1997): Appendix 1 - List of wood densities for tree species from tropical America, Africa, and Asia. ''In:'' Estimating Biomass and Biomass Change of Tropical Forests: a Primer. ''FAO Forestry Papers'' 134.
* (2008): Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
''Albizia lebbeck''
Retrieved 2008-FEB-23. * (2005)
''Albizia lebbeck'' (L.) Benth.
Version 10.01, November 2005. Retrieved 2008-MAR-30. * (1994): 2.5 Albizia lebbeck - a Promising Forage Tree for Semiarid Regions. ''In:'' : ''Forage Tree Legumes in Tropical Agriculture''. CAB Intemational

* (2004): ''Enzyklopädie der psychoaktiven Pflanzen, Botanik, Ethnopharmakologie und Anwendungen'' (7th ed.). AT Verlag. * (2006): The fishing rhea: a new food item in the diet of wild greater rheas (''Rhea americana'', Rheidae, Aves). ''Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia'' 14(3): 285-287 nglish with Portuguese abstractbr>PDF fulltext
* (1994): Germplasm Resources Information Network
''Albizia lebbeck'' (L.) Benth.
Version of 1994-AUG-23. Retrieved 2008-MAR-30.

External links

''Albizia lebbeck'' List of Chemicals (Dr. Duke's Databases)
* {{Authority control lebbeck Medicinal plants of Asia Medicinal plants of Oceania Forages Flora of Queensland Eudicots of Western Australia Bushfood Trees of India Trees of Nepal Flora of Tamil Nadu Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus