Toona


Toona, commonly known as red cedar, toon or toona, tooni is a genus in the mahogany family, Meliaceae, native from Afghanistan south to India, and east to North Korea, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. In older texts, the genus was often incorporated within a wider circumscription of the related genus Cedrela, but that genus is now restricted to species from the Americas.

Uses

Image:ToonaSinensis.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Chinese Toon tree

Ornamental use

Toona sinensis is of interest as by far the most cold-tolerant species in the Meliaceae, native in China as far north as 40°N in the Beijing area, where its tender shoots, called xiangchun, are a traditional local leaf vegetable. It is the only member of the family that can be cultivated successfully in northern Europe, where it is sometimes planted as an ornamental tree in parks and avenues. Until recently, it had no widespread English common name, though Chinese Mahogany is now used.

Wood source

Toona ciliata is an important timber tree. It provides a valuable hardwood used for furniture, ornamental panelling, shipbuilding, and musical instruments like the sitar, rudra veena, and drums. Due to the restrictions in recent years on the use of natively-grown American mahogany, it has become one of the common mahogany replacements in electric guitar manufacturing.

Medicinal and culinary uses

Toona sinensis is used in Chinese traditional medicine and eaten as a vegetable or sauce in China.

Species

, six species are recognised by Plants of the World Online, as follows: