Pterocarpus Officinalis Trees With Buttressed Roots Stock Image

Pterocarpus is a pantropical genus of trees in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, and was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic Pterocarpus clade within the Dalbergieae. Most species of Pterocarpus yield valuable timber traded as padauk or padouk; other common names are mukwa or narra. Pterocarpus santalinus also yields the most precious rosewood in China known as Zitan. The wood from the narra tree Pterocarpus indicus and the burmese padauk tree Pterocarpus macrocarpus is marketed as amboyna when it has grown in the burl form.The scientific name is Latinized Ancient Greek and means `wing fruit`, referring to the unusual shape of the seed pods in this genus.