Happiness tree: Introduction, Classification, Distribution, Chemical constituents, Morphological Characters and Uses
Introduction
Garcinia subelliptica, widely referred to as the Fukugi tree or happy tree, is an evergreen that grows in coastal forests in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in the Ryukyu Islands of India, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. Native to the tropics and subtropics of Asia and Africa, fukugi trees are members of the Clusiaceae family, specifically the species Garcinia. The genus includes beautiful plants with a thick green leaf canopy. When fully grown, fukugi trees—evergreen tropical trees—are 10 to 15 meters tall. Because they only have one primary trunk supporting alternating pairs of erect branches, fukugi trees are very unique. This results in compact, conical crowns. Because they are compact and erect, these trees are planted as windbreaks on Okinawa.
The species is planted as fences in home gardens and as forest belts or groves along the shore and village borders. A survey of 12 villages on the island of Ishigaki revealed that Fukugi trees are found in 30% of the homes. The Okinawan cultural environment is characterized by fukugi trees that line the stone walls of traditional homes with red roof tiles and a pair of guardian lions. The highest portions of buildings, especially the roofs and eaves, are shielded by the crown foliage of Fukugi, while the lower portions are protected by walls that are 1.2 to 1.5 meters high. Traditional wisdom is embodied in the aesthetics of the Fukugi trees that create the environment of these settlements on the Ryukyu Islands and the Satoyama concept of man living in harmony with nature.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Clusiaceae
Genus: Garcinia
Species: G. subelliptica
Binomial name: Garcinia subelliptica
Common name: Philippine Fortune Tree, Fukugi, Happiness Tree,
Distribution
There are over 450 species in the genus Garcinia, which are found in Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, Polynesia, and Central America. Thirteen endemic species and one invasive species are found in China, whereas thirty-five species are found in India. There are 396 species of Garcinia with recognized names on the 2013 plant list. There are roughly 30 kinds of edible fruits in Southeast Asia, and the majority of them are sour due to the presence of citric acid. Because it yields the sweetest fruits, Garcinia mangostana L., sometimes known as mangosteen, is the most widely grown.
Chemical Constituents
Benzophenones, xanthones, biflavonoids, and triterpenoids are the main types and number of chemicals found in G. subelliptica. The fruit, seed, wood, bark, and root have all been shown to contain benzophenones and xanthones. Garcinia xanthones and subelliptenones are the main xanthones, whilst garcinielliptones are the predominant benzophenones. The leaf is where biflavonoids are mostly found. The predominant biflavonoids are flavones found in garcinia. Fruit and leaves contain triterpenoids. The first two biflavonoids to be identified from the stem bark of G. subelliptica were fukugetin and fukugiside.
Phloroglucins, also known as benzophenones, are a broad class of phenolic compounds with over 300 members that are distinguished by sharing a phenol-carbonylphenol skeleton. While the B ring can be prenylated and cyclized to produce a wide range of structurally distinct compounds with bi-, tri-, and tetra-cyclic ring systems, the A ring typically has up to two substituents. Garcinia species usually include benzophenones, which are important intermediates in the biosynthesis of xanthones. As more prenyl groups are added, these non-polar molecules grow more hydrophobic.
Morphological Characters
1. The tree can reach a height of 15 to 20 meters. Young trees have a main trunk from which alternating pairs of upright branches emerge, forming a compact conical crown. Older trees have thicker trunks with grayish bark and wider crowns.
2. The tree is characterized by its yellowish latex, cone-shaped crown, and upward-pointing branches and leaves.
3. G. subelliptica leaves are ovate-oblong, densely leathery, rounded at the apex, and spirally arranged in opposite pairs.
4. The twigs are angled from 4-6. The upper surface is glossy and dark green, while the underside is yellow-green. The side veins are not apparent, but the midrib is noticeable.
5. When young, leaves are reddish-bronze; as they age, they turn yellow-green and dark green. Compared to shade leaves, G. subelliptica’s sun leaves are more elliptic, thicker, and smaller. In addition to having larger and more stomata, sun leaves contain more chlorophyll than shadow leaves.
6. The plant is monoecious, meaning that the same trees have both male and female flowers.
7. The oval fruits have a highly sour taste and are green when young and yellowish-orange when grown.
8. Every year, fukugi trees start to bloom in early May, and their fruits ripen in late August. Ripe fruits that have fallen have a pungent, disagreeable smell.
9. The trees that dominate the rural terrain offer protection from deadly typhoons, shade, and windbreaks.
10. Shrine and other sacred place landscapes in Okinawa are similarly shaped by G. subelliptica. The average height, trunk diameter, and age of the 683 trees that were counted and measured were 10 m, 35 cm, and 140 years, respectively.
11. There have been reports of fukugi trees that are over 300 years old and have trunk diameters of about 80 cm. According to these growth statistics, Fukugi grows relatively slowly.
12. G. subelliptica trees have gained popularity as ornamentals in gardens and at the side of roadways in recent years.
Uses
In ripeness, The Ryukyu flying foxes (Pteropus dasymallus) eat fukugi fruits in the summer, although the farmers’ fruit harvests are their primary food supply.
Young G. subelliptica leaves were discovered to be the food source for the larvae of a new species of moth called Heleanna fukugi. Adults of this species were observed emerging from bull-headed shrike nests constructed on Fukugi tree branches.
Traditional fabrics, such as the Okinawan Bingata, have been dyed on the Ryukyu Islands using the yellow pigment found in the bark of Fukugi trees. We saw that Miruku, the God of Harvest, was wearing a traditional yellow kimono stained with Fukugi bark at the Shichi festival on Iriomote Island.