When Bartlett Arboretum plantsman, Adam Black, offered me a pot of Brucea javanica, a few years ago, I quickly turned him down. The last thing we needed was a tender tree from the Indonesia island of Java. Java is located at 6-9 degree latitude, so the idea that anything from Java would have a chance at being winter hardy in Zone 7b/8a NC, is miniscule. Adam convinced me it was worth a try, so home I came with a new tree. As I would soon discover, Brucea actually has a wider native range, from Sri Lanka to Northern Australia, but everywhere it occurs is tropical, and below 1,600′ elevation.
Brucea, formerly thought to be a sumac (Rhus), is a member of the Simarobuacae family, which is also where the better known, tree of heaven (Ailanthus) now resides. The taxonomic split of Brucea from the sumacs occurred, when DNA test showed that this single species had been masquerading as, and mooching off the popularity of the sumacs for decades, when it was actually not even in the same family. After the split, the true sumacs remain in their own family, Anacardiaceae.
We went ahead and planted our new Brucea in a remote section of the garden, where we were sure we’d never see it again. Well, winter indeed killed it back to the ground, but in spring, it returned like the proverbial jack-in-the-beanstalk. Our plant is now 8′ tall, and growing with incredible vigor…well on it’s way to its mature height of 16 feet.
Brucea has long been valued for its medicinal properties. I has been used orally for years to treat diarrhea, dysentery, and malaria, and topically, to treat hemorrhoids and warts. In the last few decades, it has become a part of cancer treatments. We’ll see what the future holds for our almighty Brucea.
And hopefully it won’t host the spotted lantern fly like the tree of heaven does!!
I’m not sure another host would matter. There have already been 103 plant hosts identified for spotted lantern fly. If you include plants on which it lays eggs, that number rises to 172 (per PA Dept of Agriculture) This includes both native and introduced species. As we constantly remind people, insects do not require plants that they evolved with, for food.
was in Panama many years ago looking for a close relative to this plant which grows under similar circumstances and looks very much like, wondering if they might be the same. was down there plant hunting for a pharmaceutical company. that was 20 years ago, fast forward to today, the plant grows extensively in Puerto Rico. who knew?! interesting times, we found the plant after searching for a week in our guide’s pasture, pure serendipity. was well worth the trip, learned a lot about the woody plants of the tropics. would do it again.