PlantFiles: Monkey Hand Tree, Hand Plant Tree
Chiranthodendron pentadactylon

I LIVE IN PLIMMERTON, PORIRUA, NEW ZEALAND AND ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO THE MONKEYHAND TREE I HAD BLEW DOWN IN A STORM. I COLLECTED ALL THE SEED PODS AND ABOUT TWO YEARS AGE I DECIDED TO HAVE A GO AT PROPIGATING THEM. I PUT ABOUT THIRTY SEEDS STRIGHT OUT OF THE PODS IN A TRAY OF SEED RAISING MIX AND LEFT THEM OUTSIDE AFTER ABOUT THREE MONTHS ABOUT 25% OF THEM SPROUTED THEY ARE BETWEEN FOUR AND NINE FEET TALL NOW AND DOING WELL. TO OPEN THE PODS I PUT THEM IN A VICE AND FORCED THEM OPEN WITH A SCREWDRIVER WE GET VERY LITTLE FROST HERE AND THE TREES ARE ON THE HILLSIDE FACING THE SEA

My son just brought this Monkey Hand tree flower home from SF Botanical garden and I'd like to know what is the best way to plant it if possible at all (please see uploaded picture above).

Thanks,

Rick

I am so glad you posted the above regarding the propagation from seed as I have some of these seeds and have been trying to find information regarding that subject. I just got the seeds this past weekend. They are black. I will try your instructions on the refrigeration then boiling water etc. The seeds are relatively small and scoring them or sanding them seems like it might be a difficult task. But I will see what I can do. Having to cool them in the fridge for 3 months seems like something I might not have the patience for but I will try it out. I am real anxious to grow this tree.
7/22/06-Since the above posting by me, I have been able to germinate one so far and have posted a picture of it. It is still just a little baby in a teeny tiny pot. I have also purchase a 15 gal Chiranthodendron Pentadactylon from a local nursery that was going out of business and anyone interested, they may still be open and have a couple more examples left for sale.

My location is Auckland, New Zealand.
There has been a Mexican Handflower Tree growing on my property for about 15 years.
The tree is growing in clay - there is very little top soil here where the climate is subtropical. We seldom if ever get frosts and the summer temperature does not normally exceed mid to low thirties centigrade (mid eighties farenheit).
The tree is growing in the foothills of the Waitakere Ranges where the annual rainfall is 2000mm (80 inches).

The tree produced seed pods for the first time this year in summer. It is now the end of May and we are approaching mid-winter. The pods are still in place on the tree although we have removed a few upon which to experiment. Most of the summer's pods have not burst open although we did find one open - it may have been one from last year that we didn't see.

When we managed to open a pod by heating it in the oven and thereby softening it, the seeds appeared to be immature and pale in colour. Other Mexican Handflower trees have been grown on the Coromandel Peninsula a few hours drive from here. They produced pods from which the seeds were obtained. Those seeds were black in colour.

We have been unsuccessful in propogating the black seeds that we were given. However, our research has uncovered the following:

"The seeds are hard to break from their dormancy and need 3 months or so in the refridgerator at a temperature of 5 degrees centigrade. They then need to be immersed in near boiling water, 80 to 95 degree centigrade and left to soak for 12 to 24 hours while the water cools. The seeds then need to be scarified (lightly sanded or scraped to soften the outer coating)".

We have yet to try all this so watch this space.

Does anyone else have any information on how to propagate the seeds from the Handflower Tree (Chirantodendron pentadactylon)?

Has anyone had any success in taking cuttings from the tree?
Ours failed.

I have a Monkey Hand Tree in my backyard that is about 60 years old and stands 40+ feet tall. I am in the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles, CA. The tree is healthy even though it has had some heavy pruning where it extends over my neighbors properties. Although it drops seed pods every spring, it has never propagated in the 37 years that I've owned it. The flowers are extremely striking and look more like a "devil's hand" than a "monkey's hand". It does seem to be producing less flowers than it did when it was younger. The flowers have a double row of yellow pollen on the back of each finger of the scarlet hand. Perhaps it needs cross pollenization from similar trees in order to propagate. The tree was imported by the Paul Howard Nursery in the late 40's and there is, or was, another tree at UCLA.

Chiranthodendron is Greek for "Tree with a hand-shaped flower." Pentadactylon is Greek for "5-fingered." Rare tree, even in it's native Mexico and Guatemala. It is reported to tolerate light frost. It should be grown in full sun, in a well drained location.