Toona

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Toona is a genus of five or six species of trees in the mahogany family Meliaceae, native from eastern China south to India, southeast Asia and northern Australia.

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• Toona australis - Australian Redcedar
• Toona calantas - Kalantas or Philippine Mahogany
• Toona ciliata - Toon, Suren or Indian Mahogany
• Toona febrifuga - Vietnam Mahogany
• Toona sinensis - Chinese Mahogany or Chinese Toon
• Toona sureni - Suren or Indonesian Mahogany

Toona australis and T. ciliata are important timber trees, providing a valuable hardwood used for furniture, ornamental panelling, shipbuilding, etc. Many authorities treat these two as the same species, under the name T. ciliata.

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Toona sinensis is of interest as by far the most cold-tolerant species in the Meliaceae, native in China as far north as 40°N in the Beijing area, where its tender shoots, called xiangchun (), are a traditional local leaf vegetable. It is the only member of the family that can be cultivated successfully in northern Europe, where it is sometimes planted as an ornamental tree in parks and avenues. Until recently, it had no widespread English common name, though Chinese Mahogany (reflecting its botanical relationship) is now used (e.g. Rushforth 1999).

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In older texts, the genus was often incorporated within a wider circumscription of the related genus Cedrela, but that genus is now restricted to species from the New World.

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Toona: References and external links ►



 

Genus: :...

Tree: :This article is about the biological organisms known as trees. For other meanings of the word see tree (disambiguation)....

China: :This article is about Chinese civilization. For the modern-day state commonly referred to as "China", see People's Republic of China. For other meanings, see China (disambiguation)....