Portia tree

The portia tree (Thespesia populnea)^[1] Family Malvaceae,^[2] is a small tree or shrub 5-10 (-20) m high that is pantropical in littoral environments, although probably native only to the Old World. In Hawai‘i and elsewhere in the Pacific it is possibly indigenous, although may have been spread by early Polynesians for its useful wood and fiber.

Portia tree
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Malvales
Family:	Malvaceae
Genus:	Thespesia
Species:	T. populnea
Binomial name
Thespesia populnea (L.)Sol.ex Correa

Thespesia populnea

Common names vary according to the country and include "Indian tulip tree", "Pacific rosewood", "seaside mahoe" (in Florida), surina (the "elegant tree"), suriya (Sinhala), bebaru or baru baru (Malay), milo or miro (in many Polynesian languages), mako‘i (Rapanui), gangaraavi (Telugu), poovarasu (Tamil), and plaksa (Sanskrit).

Traditionally it was planted in sacred groves and used for religious sculpture throughout eastern Polynesia. It was used for the rongorongo tablets of Easter Island.^[3]

Sources

• Binggeli, P. 1999.Miro Archived 2005-12-22 at the Wayback Machine