Albizia odoratissima seed

LATIN NAME: ALBIZIA ODORATISSIMA

COMMON NAME: Fragrant Albizia

The fragrant albizia perfumes the tall, deciduous tree with the feathery, twice-divided leaves and the dense, round clusters of the small, greenish-white, strongly fragrant flowers that open through the warm season, the clusters perfuming the wide crown with the sweet scent, the flat, brown pods following. The tree grows quickly into the broad, spreading crown, and it stands the heat and the dry spells well. It likes the sun, and the deep, well-drained soil.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The scented flower clusters of the fragrant albizia give it a recognised place in the research on the warm-climate nitrogen-fixing timber trees of the mimosa group, and the odoratissima species appears in the studies of the fragrant bloom chemistry and the soil-enriching roots. The work looks at the way the sweet scent carries through the crown, the hard, handsome timber, and the seed biology. The foresters value the wood, and the growers of the warm-climate shade and timber trees keep the species in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the warm, sunny ground, the fragrant albizia perfumes the warm garden with the sweet, cream clusters. The clusters scent the evening air, the roots enrich the soil, and the timber serves the furniture and the building. It thrives in the deep, well-drained, sunny ground. Sweet-scented, broad and soil-enriching.

To grow the Fragrant Albizia from seed, sow the seeds into the trays of the sandy, free-draining mix, keep them warm and lightly watered.

Sow the seeds into the trays of the sandy, free-draining mix, and pot the seedlings on as they grow. The perfume blooms come within a few seasons. , and the seedlings thread up within a few weeks. The perfume blooms will scent the warm season.

This is a fast growing deciduous tree from the Indian sub-continent. It grows to 30 metres or so tall with a large spreading crown out to 20 metres. It can grow up to 1 metre in height annually and develops a substantial trunk with a dark heartwood surrounded by a lighter less dense sap wood. Used in India and Sri Lanka for furniture and carving, it is a cheaper more readily available source of ‘rosewood’ (as opposed to the rarer and slower growing true rosewoods – Dalbergia).
Extensively planted in many places as a useful, as an initially fast growing shade tree. It is quite a decorative tree and carries large clusters of small white or yellow scented flowers followed by flattened seedpods.