Simarouba is a medium sized evergreen tree (height 7-15 meters) with tap root system and cylindrical stem. The alternate imparipinnate compound leaves have 13-23 leaflets. The plants are polygamodioecious with about 5% of the population producing exclusively staminnate (male) flowers and 40-50% producing mainly male flowers and a few bisexual flowers (andromonoecious) while the remaining 40-50% produces only the pistillate (female) flowers.


Flowering is annual beginning in December and continuing upto following February. The trees start bearing when they are 4-6 years old (grafts begin to do so in 3-4 years) and reach stability in production after another 4-5 years. The drupelets are blackish purple in Kaali genotypes and yellowish green in Gauri genotypes and they are ready for harvesting by April/May. Simarouba seeds contain 60-75% oil that can be easily refined, bleached, deodorised and fractionated. It is suitable for edible and non-edible purposes.

Simarobaceae

It is found growing under wide range of conditions from South Florida to Costa rica in Central America, Kenya and Burundi in central Africa. In India it is in cultivation/plantation in Orissa and also at introductory stage of plantation in other states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

This tropical tree grows from sea level upto 1000 meters above sea level in all types of well drained soils with pH varying from 5.5-8.0. However, a minimum of 1.0 meter deep soil is preferred for its better growth. It has established in regions with 500 mm to 4000 mm annual rainfall. Simarouba is grown on wide varieties of soils. Any well drained soil is suitable for its growth but good loamy soil, red loams and red laterites are preferred for better growth and productivity.