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Plant

Indian tree of heaven

Ailanthus excelsa

Indian tree of heaven (Ailanthus excelsa) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Jhalana Doongri, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Scientific name
Ailanthus excelsa
Family
Simaroubaceae, order Sapindales
Group
Plant

A tall tree with long feathery leaves.

  • Spot it Long compound leaves and papery winged seeds.
  • Home Dry plains.
  • Food web Caterpillars eat the leaves; wind carries the seeds.
  • Why it matters Grows well in dry land, giving shade and a windbreak while feeding caterpillars.

Read more: Ailanthus excelsa on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

  • RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 1 verified record of this species on iNaturalist in 2006, in Jaipur.[20]

Sources

  1. Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
  2. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
  3. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
  4. Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

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