Samanea saman
species of plant
Samanea saman is a semi-deciduous species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, now in the Mimosoid clade and is native to Central and South America. It is often placed in the genus Samanea, which by yet other authors is subsumed in Albizia entirely.
Its range extends from Mexico south to Peru and Brazil, but it has been widely introduced to South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii. It is a well-known tree, rivaled perhaps only by lebbeck and pink siris among its genus. It is well represented in many languages and has numerous local names in its native range; common English names include saman, rain tree and monkeypod (see also § Names below).
In Cambodia it is colloquially known as the Chankiri Tree (can be written ចន្ទគិរី or ចន្ទ៍គីរី).
Description
Tree
Saman is a wide-canopied tree with a large symmetrical umbrella-shaped crown. It usually reaches a height of 15–25 m (49–82 ft) and a diameter of 30 m (98 ft).
This species of flowering tree in the Fabaceae family is native to Central and South America but has been widely introduced across the tropics, especially South and Southeast Asia.
Its branches have velvety and hairy bark.
“Samanea saman” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Samanea, saman and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q259500. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Samanea saman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.