Adenanthera pavonina or Red sandalwood tree, in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

From the archive record

Adenanthera pavonina or Red sandalwood tree, is a deciduous, spreading, fast-growing, branchless tree, 18-24m in height and 2.0-2.4m in girth, found in the sub Himalayan tract, ascending up to an altitude of 1,200m in Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Gujarat, Maharashtra, South India and in the Andamans. The bark and dark brown or grayish brown and rough on the old tree, and the wood is white or brownish white inside. Adenanthera pavonina leaves are bipinnate, 20-30cm long, with alternate leaflets, which are papery, elliptic-oblong, obtuse and glabrous. Flowers are yellowish and scented in short-peduncled, axillary racemes, and panicled at the end of branches. Pods are narrow and measure 15-20cm in length. On maturation, the pods twist to open and expose 8 to 12 seeds. Adenanthera pa