Paradise Tree Simarouba glauca 20 Seeds

The Paradise Tree is a tropical, evergreen tree that grows in lowland forests in the American tropics. It ranges from South Florida to the Caribbean and Central and South America. It is a small to medium-sized tree with a straight, cylindrical trunk and gray bark. It has beautiful, glossy, rich green leaves. Leaves are pinnately compound with oblong leaflets. The leaflets have whitish lower surfaces. Young leaves are burgundy. In the spring it bears large, open clusters of small, light yellow flowers. The flowers give way to oval fruits that change from orange to reed and then to black when they are mature. The fruits are edible and are sold in local markets. An oil in the seeds can be used as a biodiesel and in detergents. The bark has a long history of being used medicinally to treat a variety of ailments. It is related to the bitter wood which is used to treat malarial fevers. The paradise tree is one of the common understory trees of the hardwood hammocks of South Florida. It is