Badasundari
Heritieria fomes
Outdoor Plants Difficulty: Moderate Air purifying
📖 About this plant
Heritieria fomes (Sundari tree or ‘Badasundari’ in Odia) is a large mangrove tree of the Sterculiaceae family that dominates the Sundarbans — the world’s largest mangrove forest shared between India and Bangladesh. The tree gives the Sundarbans its name (‘forest of Sundari’). The wood is hard, dark, and valuable — used for construction, boat building, and furniture. The species is now endangered due to top-dying disease (caused by increased salinity from reduced freshwater flow) and over-harvesting. The tree produces pneumatophores (aerial roots) for gas exchange in waterlogged mangrove mud.
🧑🌾 Care requirements
☀️
Light
Full sun
💧
Water
Tidal — requires brackish water flooding
💨
Humidity
High
🌡️
Temperature
20-35°C
🪴
Soil
Mangrove mud; saline
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Fertilizer
Not required — mangrove habitat
📋 Plant facts
- 🌍 Origin
- Sundarbans, India and Bangladesh
- 📏 Max height
- 15-25 m
- 📐 Spread
- 5-8 m
- 🕰️ Bloom time
- Spring (small white flowers)
- 🎨 Bloom color
- White
- 🍃 Foliage color
- Evergreen dark green
- ⏳ Lifespan
- 80+ years
- 📈 Growth rate
- Slow
- ☠️ Toxicity
- Non-toxic
- 🌱 Propagation
- Seeds, propagules
🛡️ Health & Safety
🐾 Pet safe
✅ Non-toxic
Non-toxic
Common issues
- Top-dying disease (salinity stress), wood borer, leaf spot
💡 Care tips
- Mangrove species — requires brackish water habitat. Endangered — conservation priority.
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