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Toona sinensis
August

The faintly comic name with fishy connotations came to this tree, as names do, from the distant past, long after I planted it. The plant I bought from Hillier’s was labelled Cedrela sinensis, a name with a suggestion of cedar about it that related to the quality of its wood (or so I believed). It is said to be the only hardy relation of mahogany. Its West Indian counterpart, Cedrela odorata, is the cigarbox tree, but Toona comes from northern China, around Beijing.

When it was introduced to Paris, by Father Simon, in 1862 it was mistaken for an Ailanthus, which it superficially resembles - a mistake corrected in 1875 when it flowered. I still await the flowers, but meanwhile enjoy the splendid pinnate leaves, two feet long, and the reddish bark that peels in long strips. The leaves emerge red in spring and finish the year a brilliant yellow. Unfortunately this year the pigeons discovered that the leaves have a (rather rubbery) flavour of onion, and have been attacking the shoots all spring, leaving the tree with a rather bald top, but magnificent hanging shoots on the lower branches. Paris café owners have apparently long known about the flavour: avenue trees in certain quartiers furnish interesting salads.

Perhaps stimulated by pigeon attack my tree has recently taken to suckering as badly as an Ailanthus; the only fault I can see in a very handsome plant.

STOP PRESS
Since I wrote this it has started flowering for the first time, in early August: delicate panicles two feet long of small white scented flowers. We await the fruit.

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