PlantFiles: Indian Rosewood
Dalbergia sissoo

Help!!!!Just Purchased An Indian Rosewood Tree. I was going to plant it by our pool and pool pump. After reading the negatives I wonder if this is wise? The tree is about 12 feet and has a narrow circumference. Will it be invasive to the electrical and pool plumbing?

We have 4 of these gorgeous trees in our backyard. My favorite things about them are how quickly they grow, and how the wind blows through the leaves. It sounds similar to a bunch of pine trees in the forrest, and I love so much to sit under the thick shade of one and listen to the sound. Now they absolutely do require pruning and staking, so they are not a no maintenance tree. After about the 4th-5th year, they do create a more than what I would call "low" litter, but definitely less than many other popular trees here in AZ, and definitely not high or even moderate litter. After last winter's big freeze, ours lost most of their leaves, but typically in this area, they keep them all year. Like all hearty big trees, you must not plant them very close to walls, concrete, patios, houses, and other structures as a precaution. Trees this large do need a big root system. I also would advise to clean up after their seed pods to avoid saplings, as with all big trees.

Be forewarned of what you're getting yourself into. They are so beautiful and fast growing when they are young, but when you reach the 6th & 7th year - you are in for a constant mess, especially in the winter. I was heartbroken to have to take them out. After removing 15 of these trees off my entire property in Feb 2010, I am still paying the price physically & financially in Sept 2010 of trying to rid all the new saplings that are popping up everywhere. While the trunks are dead, the roots are not. It won't stop, no matter what we do. We've pulled every imaginable root and have to rip up our lawn again. We have poisoned these things to death at the trunk numerous numerous times, and have sprayed, pulled, cussed at every new tree root popping out of the ground. It has destroyed pavers, and after comparing notes with several several people, they have had water lines busted, concrete busted, lawns ruined, plants ruined. I was given wrong information from beginning to end from numerous sources. This is probably going to destroy many yards & marriages all over Arizona in the coming years.

I have 2 seven year old Sissoo's in my backyard that I must sadly remove. These are beautiful trees which I decided to purchase after doing extensive research. I asked the largest tree nursery in AZ (they planted the trees) for advice and they didn't tell me that these trees will take over everything in its path. They never said that they would be a problem where they were planted. These trees are wolves in sheep's clothing.

The tree that's closest to the grass lawn is extremely invasive. I've removed roots and saplings from areas 35 ft away from the base of the tree. I've torn up my lawn several times removing the roots. It seems to suck whatever water is around because my lawn and plants in the tree's vicinity are all languishing.

The other tree is further away from the lawn but has large roots that are on the surface of the soil and are in close proximity to my sidewalk, air conditioner and house foundation.

It's such a shame, because I've wasted money purchasing and having the wrong trees planted, 7 years of watering, killing my other plants in their general area, having to spend money trying to get rid of these trees and worst of all having to start over from scratch. The most important thing in AZ, when it comes to landscaping, is to plant trees on the south & west sides of your property to shade your house and yard from our harsh summer sun.

Unless you have a yard that is 80 ft. deep by 80 ft. wide, with nothing else in the area, then a Sissoo could work. But if not, then don't chance it. There's got to be other trees more desirable. If anyone has any honest advice on what shade trees would be recommended for a yard with a lawn, a pool and other landscape plants, please let me know. I'm desperate for some good advice.

After having searched the Web high and low for the cons and/or disadvantages of Dalbergia sissoo trees, I must say I'm flabbergasted that the majority of information I have found is nothing but positive. Why? Because my experience with this tree has been an absolute nightmare, and I would never recommend it to anyone.

I had never heard of the sissoo tree until I purchased a 10-year-old home with a tall, obviously established one in its back yard. On the walk-through, about 24 feet away from the gargantuan beast, I noticed what appeared to be a small plant or weed in a corner of the yard, and asked about it. "That's just a sapling from the tree," I was told by a Realtor. "Don't worry about it."

A few weeks later, after moving into the home, the sapling had grown to more than four feet tall. I wondered how, in a Phoenix-metro suburb in late May, anything could grow so fast without water (the sprinkler system was broken) or special treatment. I also wondered how the tree had managed to produce the obviously "teenaged" one in the corner along with a "day-care class full" number of even younger siblings -- in the form of several saplings dotting the back yard and the front yard landscape as well -- without water or nourishment, and how these younger versions of the bohemoth "parent" not only managed to keep growing but also to multiply, reproducing a veritable litter of potential adult sissoos.

Presumably, people are posting that they fear killing these trees, but from what I have seen and experienced, nothing can kill the sissoo. By late July/early August, the "sapling" I was told not to "worry about" was at least six feet tall and filled with lush green leaves. Yet the sprinkler system was still broken. I noticed a long crack in the concrete of the back yard patio that appeared to have been caused by at least one root of the original monstrosity, evidenced by the way in which one part of a root abutted the patio's concrete edge while another part chose its own path underneath the patio toward the house.

Since moving in, I had been following the saplings on an almost daily basis in an attempt to keep them at bay. It wasn't until I began to notice cracks in the exterior of the home's foundation that it dawned on me that in a few instances each crack, like the one in the patio, was abutted by at least one large, long, thick root of the sissoo tree.

Why the tree encroached as it did, I don't know. What I did know was that, unlike the home's original and second owners, I would do whatever necessary to get rid of "the tree of one-hundred-thousand roots" and save the house.

I have had the same tree removal service here three times since September 2008, but the saplings reveal their faces again and again. I have spent a great number of hours digging, cutting, sawing, breaking, snapping, chipping, and pouring, and just when I think it's over, through the plastic (unless I have simply cut it away) just under the gravel used in the desert landscaping, I'll spy the faintest outline of part of a root, a root that turns out to be a foot in diameter and who-knows-what-length since the root has burrowed deep into the ground. The tree service, me and the chemicals have been battling the roots of this sissoo for so long unsuccessfully that I'm beginning to think this sissoo is unlike any other species about which I have read.

Most recently, I hired yet another tree removal company, one I worked with in the past at my former home that was easily able to, using a backhoe, remove plants with tremendously long roots, killing them. I'm fairly certain the plants were permanently removed because five years later, no sign of them. Yet this company, which didn't use a backhoe but a stump grinder, managed to, unlike the previous company (which continues to advertise that it not only does tree removal but also stump grinding) actually grind the original stump to a point at which it disappeared or at least must be extremely deep below the ground. The first company merely "sheered", very lightly, a small portion of the stump, leaving behind most of the fat, long octopus-type roots growing from around the stump as if it were the center of a carousel and the roots, some as long as 12 feet, the carousel animals. I was told the same thing by the tree company I used this time as the prior tree company told me: "The tree is dead now and gone. You won't see anymore roots."

Last night, however, my dog, never one to dig, had apparently decided "enough is enough" when it came to competing for my attention over the last eight months with this "tree from hell", and dug a perfect hole exactly where there were more roots, apparently long and thick and either burrowing deeply into the ground or growing under the wall between my house and one of the neighbors behind me. This morning, after I took photos (the dog is better at finding roots and getting rid of them than the men with the professional tree removal service companies?) of the hole and the dog by the hole, I looked more closely into the hole, seeing that there was some wetness by one of the roots.

So, although I had hoped and prayed I would never have to deal with this tree again (yet knowing it was one of my many crosses to bear), I began to dig. In spite of exhaustion, frustration and anger at this monstrosity defined as a "tree" that is more like an oat cell cancer, at the continued life-sucking and foundation hugging by each remaining root after God only knows how many months, hours, minutes and seconds I have spent digging, each day a little bit at a time, at the tree companies' failure to pay attention to me when I tell them about the tree's behavior, and, despite being paid $150 extra, at the employees' failure to perform even the slightest amount of physical work possible, such as digging (even when the temperatures are in the 60s and 70s).

So here I am, $650 in the hole with "roots" of this living oat cell cancer known as a Dalbergia sissoo still in my back yard and still refusing to die. I have cut off water to it but still am removing excessively long skinny wet roots along with huge tree-trunk-size roots.

While it seems that I will never be able to get rid of each root of the tree, at least I know that no tree company can do so either, so I won't waste any more money on these companies. However, I don't want to spend the rest of my life digging, so perhaps my best bet at this point is to contact my homeowner's insurance company and ask them for advice.

I know from searching online over the past several months that the tree should never have been planted by the former owners of this home. Just as a root from one of the three sissoos in my former neighbor's yard had pushed up the concrete wall between her home and the home on the other side of her so that she had to pay to replace the entire wall, gates, and so on (and yet two sissoos remain in that yard), roots in my yard could be anxious to get rid of the wall that divides me from the neighbors behind me.

While I found information on this tree online, until recently I found it to be unrealistic because it seemed to exclude the "negatives" of these trees.

The tree is described as having " ... a long taproot and an extensive lateral root system, often at the soil surface and producing suckers (PIER, 2006)." Apparently, that sissoos are spreading throughout Arizona must be a secret, because according to the site, the tree is "... known to be invasive in Australia and in Florida (U.S.)"

Because of the tree's "aggressive root system", according to the Global Invasive Species Database website, it is ".. prone to suckering" and thus "... is commonly used for erosion control and soil stabilization along stream and river banks (ICRAF, undated)."

In my opinion, the damage, headaches, and cost of dealing with the cons of this tree far outweigh its pros, at least here in the desert, of being fast growing and providing a lot of shade. Surely there are other trees one can choose from, ones that did not make it to the Global Invasive Species Database.

Some very good descriptions precede mine, including the morning fragrance of the inconspicuous white blossoms. But I'd like to add that I spent several years in the nursery trade - grown too fast (pushed with fertilizer, warmed in winter, etc.) the wood is brittle. Grown as a landscape tree, it is as sturdy as any Elm, perhaps more so. Has shown more wind and weight resistance than Ficus nitida. There are several around town that have never succumbed to high winds. In particular, there's one on the Glendale CC Campus, over 40 years old, huge -- never split nor broke and has been through 40 years of monsoons. Also, in our climate it is usually evergreen; 2 years ago temps of 24 degrees two nights in a row, took about 1/2 the foliage. Fastest growing broad-leafed shade tree for the desert.

This is a graceful tree, but as stated above, it is quite brittle. The hurricanes did remove a lot of them for us, but not enough. It is listed as a Category II Invasive Exotic in central and south Florida.

This tree makes a handsome specimen. It is easily grown, semi-evergeen and has delicate, oval-pointed leaves. Rosewood makes an excellent light, filtered shade. The leaves dance easily in any breeze. Flowers are very inconspicuous, but very fragrant and white. They are followed Slender, flat, brown seed pods.

Rosewood is a prized wood for cabinet makers. Many are grown for lumber or veneer. Though the wood of this tree is beautiful, it can be very brittle. If you live in an area prone to wind storms, proper early training and pruning, can help ensure wind resistance. This is one of the trees that didn't make it after our recent hurricanes.

Roots can be a nuisance if planted to close to hardscape. They can lift sidewalks and the like.