Oroxylum indicum
English: Midnight horror; Indian trumpet flower; Broken bones; Indian caper; Tree of Damocles.
Indian: Shyonak.
Vietnamese: Núc nác; sò đo
Region: India, Himalaya, Bhutan, southern China, Indochina, Malesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka.
Genus: 1 species.
Botany: tree, up to 18 metres; leaves with large stalks, fall off appearing like a pile of broken limb bones at the base of the trunk; leaves pinnate, ± 1 metre long and wide comparably wide, petioles up to 2 metres long, quadripinnate; flowers nightly, pollination by bats; fruit enormous, ± 1m long, pods, hang down from bare branches, resembling swords, curve downward, resemble the wings of a large bird or dangling sickles or swords in the night, with papery wings; lives in relationship with the actinomycete Pseudonocardia oroxyli; Septobasidium bogoriense is a fungal species responsible for velvet blight in O. indicum.
Content: phytochemicals, prunetin, sitosterol, oroxindin, oroxylin-A, biochanin-A, ellagic acid, tetuin, anthraquinone, emodin; anthraquinone; aloe-emodi; baicalein, tetuin, oroxindin, aloe-emodin and chrysin.
Use: ornamental; wood, tannins, dyestuffs; marriage rituals;sculptures or garlands made from seeds provide protection; food, edible leaves and stems, large young pods; traditional medicines; Ayurveda; Chinese medicines.