Barringtonia asiatica
(sea poison tree)

Preferred Scientific Name

• Barringtonia asiatica (L.) Kurz

Preferred Common Name

• sea poison tree

Other Scientific Names

• Agasta asiatica (L.) Miers
• Agasta indica Miers
• Agasta splendida Miers
• Barringtonia butonica J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.
• Barringtonia senequei Jard.
• Barringtonia speciosa J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.
• Butonica speciosa (J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.) Lam.
• Butonica speciosum (J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.) Britten
• Mammea asiatica L.
• Michelia asiatica (L.) Kuntze
• Mitraria commersonia J.F.Gmel.

International Common Names

• English: fish poison tree
• Spanish: arbol de muertos; arzobispo; barringtonia
• Chinese: bin yu rui

Local Common Names

• Australia: Asian barringtonia; barringtonia; beach barringtonia
• Dominican Republic: arbol del seminario; calmante; coco de cofresi
• Haiti: birrete de arzobispo; bonete de arzobispo
• Indonesia: bitung; butun; keben-keben
• Lesser Antilles: arbre a barrette; bishop's cap; bonnet de pretre; bonnet d'eveque; mitre's cap; pain tree
• Malaysia: butong; putat ayer; putat laut
• Papua New Guinea: maliou
• Philippines: bitung; boton; botong
• Puerto Rico: almendrota; bonete de arzobispo; coco de mar; mudilla
• Thailand: chik ta lae; don ta lae
• USA/Hawaii: fish poison tree; putat laut; sea putat

EPPO code

• BGTAS (Barringtonia asiatica)

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Theales
•                         Family: Lecythidaceae
•                             Genus: Barringtonia
•                                 Species: Barringtonia asiatica

Lecythidaceae is a pantropical family of trees and shrubs comprising 25 genera and about 340 species (Stevens, 2012). This family is confined to tropical regions where it is best developed in warm and very humid areas. Plants within the family Lecythidaceae (sensu lato) are characterized by alternate, simple leaves, perfect flowers, cortical bundles in the stem, numerous stamens, three-aperturate pollen, axile placentation, and a bitegmic-tenuinucellate ovule (Morton et al., 1997). Currently, Lecythidaceae is included within the order Ericales, and in spite of the fact that its position within the clade is not well-defined, is considered monophyletic (Anderberg et al. 2002). The genus Barringtonia includes 70 species restricted to the Old World (Stevens, 2012). 

Many of the common names of this species reflect its use as a fish poison. The seeds have been used ground to a powder to stun or kill fish for easy capture, suffocating the fish without affecting the flesh.

B. asiatica is a large tree, 7 to 25 m tall, growing as a mangrove associate on sandy and rocky shores. Branches stout; bark fissured. Leaves sessile, obovate to obovate-oblong, 20-40 × 10-20 cm, leathery, shiny, base cuneate, margin entire, apex obtuse or broadly rounded.  Racemes mostly terminal, erect, 5-15 cm, 5-10(-20)-flowered; bracts ovate, 8-20 mm; bracteoles triangular, 1.5-5 mm. Pedicel 5-9 cm. Flower buds 2-4 cm in diam. Calyx undivided, rupturing at anthesis into 2 or 3 unequal, rounded or acuminate, persistent lobes 3-4 × 2-3 cm and a tube 3-5 mm. Petals 4, white, ovate or elliptic, 5-6 cm. Stamens in 6 whorls; tube 1.5-6 mm; filaments and style white, red-tipped; outer filaments 7-9 cm. Ovary 4-loculed, 5-9 mm; ovules 4 or 5 per locule; style 11-13 cm. Fruit dispersed by floating, broadly pyramidal, smooth, 9-11 cm, apex tapering and crowned by calyx; pericarp spongy, fibrous, green at first than turning brown when ripe and floats on water. The middle layer is spongy (like the coconut) and contains air sacs to help the fruit float (Polunin, 1987; Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2014). 

In the West Indies, B. asiatica was probably introduced late in the 1800s. The oldest botanical records at the US National Herbarium report the occurrence of large trees of B. asiatica for the islands of Antigua in 1913 and Haiti in 1926. 

Soil drainage

• seasonally waterlogged

Soil reaction

• acid
• neutral

Soil texture

• light

Special soil tolerances

• infertile
• saline

B. asiatica colonizes coastal areas where it competes with native coastal and mangrove related vegetation and eventually grows out of suppression. 

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Has a broad native range
• Abundant in its native range
• Highly mobile locally
• Long lived
• Has propagules that can remain viable for more than one year

• Damaged ecosystem services
• Ecosystem change/ habitat alteration
• Negatively impacts human health
• Negatively impacts animal health
• Negatively impacts aquaculture/fisheries
• Reduced native biodiversity
• Threat to/ loss of native species

• Competition - monopolizing resources
• Competition - shading
• Poisoning

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately

In the Philippines, the leaves of B. asiatica are heated and externally applied for stomach-ache. Fresh leaves are topically applied against rheumatism, and the seeds are employed as a vermifuge. In Indonesia and the Philippines, the fruit or seed is used as a fish poison. In the Bismarck Archipelago, the fresh nut is scraped and applied directly to a sore. The dried nut is ground, mixed with water and drunk to treat coughs, influenza, sore throat and bronchitis. Externally it is applied to wounds and a swollen spleen after an attack of malaria. In Fiji, a decoction of the leaves is used to treat hernias and a decoction of the bark to treat constipation and epilepsy. In Australia, the aborigines use the plant as a fish poison and sometimes to alleviate headache. In Indo-China the young fruits are consumed as a vegetable after prolonged cooking. It is often planted as a shade tree along boulevards and avenues along the sea. The wood is light and soft and is used for light work, carving and turnery (Yaplito, 2001).