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{{SPlantbox
|familia=Fabaceae
|genus=Tamarindus
|species=indica
|common_name=Tamarind
|habit=tree
|Max ht box=90
|Max ht metric=ft
|Max wd box=35
|Max wd metric=ft
|origin=Tropical Africa, Sudan
|lifespan=perennial
|exposure=sun
|features=fruit, drought tolerant
|flower_season=early summer, mid summer, late summer
|flowers=orange, yellow
|Temp Metric=°F
|min_zone=11
|max_zone=12
|sunset_zones=not available
|image=Tamarindus indica pods.JPG
|image_width=180
}}
'''Adaptation''': The tamarind is well adapted to semiarid tropical conditions, although it does well in many humid tropical areas of the world with seasonally high rainfall. Young trees are very susceptible to frost, but mature trees will withstand brief periods of 28° F without serious injury. A tamarind tree in the Quail Botanical Gardens in San Diego County flowers, but rarely sets fruit, possibly because of the cool coastal climate. Dry weather is important during the period of fruit development. The tree is too large to be grown in a container for any length of time.
'''Growth Habit''': Tamarinds are slow-growing, long-lived, evergreen trees that under optimum conditions can grow 80 feet high with a spread of 20 to 35 ft., in its native eastern Africa and Asia. However, in Southern California it seldom reaches more than 15 to 25 ft. in height.
'''Foliage''': The bright green, pinnate foliage is dense and feathery in appearance, making an attractive shade tree with an open branch structure. The leaves are normally evergreen but may be shed briefly in very dry areas during the hot season. There are usually as many as 10 to 20 nearly sessile 1/2 - 1 inch, pale green leaflets per leaf. The leaflets close up at night.
'''Flowers''': The inconspicuous, inch-wide, five-petalled flowers are borne in small racemes and are yellow with orange or red streaks. The flower buds are pink due to the outer color of the 4 sepals which are shed when the flower opens.
'''Fruit''': The 3 - 8 inch long, brown, irregularly curved pods are borne in abundance along the new branches. As the pods mature, they fill out somewhat and the juicy, acidulous pulp turns brown or reddish-brown. When fully ripe, the shells are brittle and easily broken. The pulp dehydrates to a sticky paste enclosed by a few coarse stands of fiber. The pods may contain from 1 to 12 large, flat, glossy brown, obovate seeds embedded in the brown, edible pulp. The pulp has a pleasing sweet/sour flavor and is high in both acid and sugar. It is also rich in vitamin B and high in calcium. There are wide differences in fruit size and flavor in seedling trees. Indian types have longer pods with 6 - 12 seeds, while the West Indian types have shorter pods containing only 3 - 6 seeds. Most tamarinds in the Americas are of the shorter type.
{{Inc|
{{Inc|
Tamarindus indica, Linn. Tamarind. Tamarindo. Fig. 3768. A large tree, attaining to 80 ft. in height when grown on deep soils, with a trunk 25 ft. in circum.: bark brownish gray, somewhat shaggy: lvs. abruptly pinnate; lfts. 20-40, opposite, oblong, 1/2 – 3/4 in. long, glabrescent, soft, pale green, obtuse: fls. few together in lax racemes, individually about 1 in. broad, pale yellow, the petals veined red; calyx-teeth lanceolate, the lowest 2 connate: pod 3-8 in. long, 3/4 - l in. broad, cinnamon-brown, with a brittle epicarp and brown pulp inclosing 1-12 seeds. Flowers in April and May in the northern hemisphere, ripening fr. in late autumn and winter. B.M. 4563 (as T. officinalis). J.F. 2:133.—The tamarind is a magnificent evergreen tree, extensively cult. in nearly all tropical countries. It succeeds in S. Fla., and has been grown as far north as Manatee, where a large specimen was killed by the freeze of 1884. It is not sufficiently hardy to be grown in Calif., failure having attended all past efforts to cult. it in that state, so far as known. It delights in a deep alluvial soil and abundant rainfall, the largest specimens being found in tropical regions where the soil is rich and deep. On the shallow soils of S. E. Fla. it does not attain to great size. When small it is very susceptible to frost, but when mature it will probably withstand temperatures as low as 28-30° F. without injury.
Tamarindus indica, Linn. Tamarind. Tamarindo. Fig. 3768. A large tree, attaining to 80 ft. in height when grown on deep soils, with a trunk 25 ft. in circum.: bark brownish gray, somewhat shaggy: lvs. abruptly pinnate; lfts. 20-40, opposite, oblong, 1/2 – 3/4 in. long, glabrescent, soft, pale green, obtuse: fls. few together in lax racemes, individually about 1 in. broad, pale yellow, the petals veined red; calyx-teeth lanceolate, the lowest 2 connate: pod 3-8 in. long, 3/4 - l in. broad, cinnamon-brown, with a brittle epicarp and brown pulp inclosing 1-12 seeds. Flowers in April and May in the northern hemisphere, ripening fr. in late autumn and winter. B.M. 4563 (as T. officinalis). J.F. 2:133.—The tamarind is a magnificent evergreen tree, extensively cult. in nearly all tropical countries. It succeeds in S. Fla., and has been grown as far north as Manatee, where a large specimen was killed by the freeze of 1884. It is not sufficiently hardy to be grown in Calif., failure having attended all past efforts to cult. it in that state, so far as known. It delights in a deep alluvial soil and abundant rainfall, the largest specimens being found in tropical regions where the soil is rich and deep. On the shallow soils of S. E. Fla. it does not attain to great size. When small it is very susceptible to frost, but when mature it will probably withstand temperatures as low as 28-30° F. without injury.
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{{Inc|
Tamarindus (from the Arabic tamar-Hindi, meaning "Indian date"). Leguminosae. A tropical genus containing but one species, the well-known tamarind. It is considered to be indigenous to tropical Africa (the upper Nile region) and possibly southern Asia as well. It has long been cultivated throughout the tropics of both hemispheres, being grown both as an ornamental and for its acid fruits, which have many uses. The tamarind became known in Europe during the Middle Ages, doubtless through the Arabians. Until correctly described by Garcia d'Orta (1563) it was supposed by Europeans to be produced by an Indian palm (Dymock).
Leaves alternate, equally pinnate, the lfts. small, indefinite in number; stipules minute, caducous: fls. irregular, produced in racemes at the ends of the branches; bracts and bracteoles ovate-oblong, colored, caducous; calyx-tube turbinate, narrow, the segms. 4, imbricate, membranaceous, colored; 3 superior petals imbricate, yellowish, veined with red, 2 inferior reduced to bristles hidden at the base of the staminal tube; fertile stamens 3, connate in a sheath, opening above with short, free filaments, anthers oblong, longitudinally dehiscent; ovary many-ovuled, with a stalk adnate to the calyx-tube, the style filiform, stigma terminal, subcapitate: fr. an oblong or linear, compressed, indehiscent pod, with a thick, crustaceous epicarp, pulpy mesocarp, and coriaceous endocarp septate between the obovate-orbicular, compressed seeds; embryo exalbuminous. The genus is distinguished from Schotia, the only ally which seems to be cult. in Amer., by its floral characters.
{{SCH}}
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==Cultivation==
==Cultivation==
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