Dalbergia sissoo (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Dalbergia sissoo Roxb. ex DC.

Protologue: Prodr. 2: 416 (1825).

Vernacular names

• Sonosissoo (general)
• Indonesia: sonowaseso (Java)
• Thailand: pradu-khaek, du-khaek (Lampang).

Distribution

Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India; planted in mainland South-East Asia, Java and Africa.

Uses

The timber is used as sonosissoo. The tree is planted in agroforestry systems, the leaves are used as forage, the wood is used as firewood.

Observations

• A small to medium-sized tree of up to 30 m tall, bole often crooked and branchless for 3-8 m, with a diameter of up to 100 cm, buttresses absent.
• Leaves with 3-5 leaflets and a zig-zag rachis, leaflets abruptly acuminate.
• Flowers sessile or subsessile, corolla yellowish-white, stamens 9-10, style 0.3-0.5 mm long.
• Pod 3-8 cm × 1-1.3 cm, with 1-2(-3) seeds.

D. sissoo grows on well-drained colluvial and alluvial soils, often near rivers and streams up to 1500 m altitude.

Selected sources

35, 102, 120, 160, 217, 234, 281, 328, 461, 563, 672, 712, 766.

Main genus page

• Dalbergia

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef