Re: samanea saman

Nan,
I can't answer your question about specific hardiness
of this tree, because I wasn't aware that it was even
possible to grow this in California.  I learned it as
the Rain Tree, and have seen beautiful, if huge,
examples of it while travelling in Malaysia, Singapore
and Sri Lanka.  Robert Riffle's book, The Tropical
Look lists this as a possible tree for zone 10/11
conditions, but then his book is more suitable for wet
summer/southern USA/south Florida conditions, as he
really didn't seem all that familiar with California
conditions.  He did write that this tends to be
problematic about surface rooting when grown under
drought stress, and that it tends to go deciduous when
water or cold stressed as well.  

Your best source of information would most likely be
to find out if they actually grow this at Quail, and
how it fared in last January's socal freeze.  I would
imagine there might also be examples of this to be
seen at the Balboa Park San Diego Zoo, if this is a
viable choice for your area.  There would also appear
to be a selected form with golden foliage which has
been heavily planted out in Singapore, and looks to be
an interesting selection.  Also, not a tree to plant
over parked cars, as it is subject to the "rain" of
aphids and/or other sucking insects, much as an
European Weeping Birch tree is.  

I can't really imagine that it would do all that well
in near desert rainfall areas such as San Diego, and
if it does, then you would need to plant it in a lawn
and have considerable space.  I doubt it reaches the
300 foot canopy dimensions that it does in the
seasonally wet tropics.  100 year old trees that I
have seen in Kuala Lumpur are simply magnificent.
--- N Sterman <TalkingPoints@plantsoup.com> wrote:

> I picked up a 1 gal Samanea saman (monkey pod tree)
> at the Quail  
> botanical garden sale a few weeks back.  Looking it
> up on the  
> internet, I see that it can get huge, but does
> anyone know how large  
> it actually gets in Southern California?  Or how
> frost tender it is?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Nan (sweeping and sweeping and sweeping away ashes)
> 
> 
> 
> Nan Sterman                                   Plant
> Soup, Inc. TM
> TalkingPoints@PlantSoup.Com
> PO Box 231034
> Encinitas, CA 92023
> 
> Order your personalized copy of the all new
> California Gardener's  
> Guide vol II at www.PlantSoup.Com
> 
> 
> 
>
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