PlantFiles: Mast tree, Asoka Tree, Ashok Tree, Sorrowless Tree
Polyalthia longifolia var. pendula

Mast tree tends to grow during August month rapidly. New plants from seeds also spourts during late August.

Ashoka is a Sanskrit word meaning without grief or that which gives no grief.

Identifying the Asoka tree can be confusing because there are a few trees that are called Asoka in India, One is Asoka (Polyalthia longifolia) and the another is Asoka (Saraca indica) or Sorrowless tree. It can be spelled differently because the letter 'S' in India is often pronounced 'sh'. Asoka sounds like Ashoka. The tall ghostly formed Asoka is Polyalthia longifolium .....very beautiful, and its fastigiate growth habit is usually pendulous and it can look 'sorrowful'. This is probably why Saraca indica is called 'Sorrowless tree.

My husband and I live in Panama. We don't have four seasons, just four or (luckily) five months of summer and the rest of the year, it rains a lot. Panama is very hot and humid.

From what we have seen, not our own experience yet, this seems to please the polyalthia longifolia. In Panama they call it "hindu pine" or "buddha tree". We search endlessly in the web for information on this cute tree, with no luck, until we found this web.

Since about a year ago, this tree has become very popular here. Mostly they plant it on the front of the houses, and even in heavy traffic streets, the tree seems to do fine. We are moving into our new home soon and we have acquired several young trees to grow.

In the place where we bought them, they were were very uncertain about its origin. They say that the seed was brought from Honduras.

They advise not to prune it, use common 12-24-12 and offered no further advise.

Can anyone give us a few recommendations?

Thanks.

I was traveling in Arusha, Tanzania and saw this tree used like Italian Cypresses are used, but for a tropical look. I'm a landscape designer in San Diego, CA and would love to know how to obtain this tree for my designs. The home builders keep putting homes closer and closer together and this tree would solve a lot of privacy issues. Our climate is the similar to the Arusha, Tanzanian climate, too.

This odd looking tree is grown all over Thailand (particularly Bangkok) as a street and avenue tree- probably the most commonly planted ornamental I saw there.

A very attractive evergreen tree with a straight stem, slender branches and a symmetrical pyramid-like crown. A very common tree in India, popularly (but incorrectly) called an Ashoka tree there. In India it is apparently frequently confused with the real Ashoka tree (Saraca Indica) because the leaves of the two plants look similar. In India it is also referred to as Asupala.

I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to grow this tree here at home in Pretoria, South Africa for the past few years. Discovered your web site today and low and behold I find that Daanl also lives in Pretoria and thet he is also trying to grow this tree. I have already sent him an e-mail and hope to hear from him soon

Hi there Dave,
I saw Polyalthia Longifolia var. pendula for the 1st time last year March in Moshi, Tanzania. Their height varies between 2 and 5-6 meters and they are used mainly to line some streets and sometimes in Government gardens as well. I asked around and was told its name is Indian Ashwood. After returning to South Africa we looked it up in various tree books and also the internet but found zero. On the 5th of this month I returned to Moshi and also visited Dar es Salaam as well as Zanzibar and found the tree everywhere but nobody know anything about it. One guy told me it is popularly known as the Christmas tree, the other said it is the Ashok tree. At the cultural center in Zanzibar a guy told me that it is not indigenous to Tanzania and was brought into the country in 1998. He couldn't however tell me more.
After returning, we found your database with the hitword Ashok tree.
I still does not know where is it originally from and how high, whether it can handle frost or not etc. It seems to be a very fast growing tree.
Can somebody help me because I would love to plant a speciman or 2 in Pretoria, South Africa.

strong growth rate in the tropics of northern Australia, will grow successfully in medium to heavy clay soils. It is being used as a streetscape tree in townsville, QLD, also attracts bower birds that steal the shiny golden seeds to line its bower.experiance shows it has a single taproot that goes straight down till it hits water, and almost no surface feeder roots.It has been successfully grown as a hedge tree with spacings of 1 metre.