The Tree That Stinks and Flies: Shitwood

💩 The Tree That Stinks and Flies: Shitwood Gyrocarpus

Some plants attract you with perfume.
This one went in a completely different direction.
Gyrocarpus americanus has collected an impressive assortment of names: Helicopter Tree, Propeller Tree, Whirly Whirly Tree, Stinkwood - and, yes, Shitwood!
Our plant came from Thailand. And long before it flowers, you understand the name. Rub or crush a leaf and you'll notice a very distinctive smell. Not exactly jasmine.

🚁 A tree with its own helicopters

The name Gyrocarpus comes from Greek words referring to turning or rotating fruit.
Its woody fruits develop two long wings. When they fall, they spin like tiny helicopters, slowing their descent and helping the wind carry them away.
Across several Pacific islands, children traditionally tossed the fruits into the air just to watch them whirl back down. The original flying toy!

It may fly like a maple seed, but Gyrocarpus isn't related to maples at all - nature invented the helicopter more than once. Maple fruits are true samaras, while Gyrocarpus produces a pseudo-samara, with its propeller wings formed from persistent flower parts.

🚁 From Thailand to almost everywhere

Despite the name americanus, this isn't simply an American tree. Its enormous natural range stretches through tropical Africa, India and Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia - including Thailand - northern Australia and Pacific islands, as well as parts of Central and South America.

In Thailand it has local names including puu le and sao.
Older references may list it as Gyrocarpus asiaticus or Gyrocarpus jacquinii. Today these are generally treated under the accepted name Gyrocarpus americanus.

🚁 An ancient useful tree

Its history goes far beyond being a botanical oddity.
The wood is very light and easy to work. Aboriginal peoples in Australia traditionally carved it into coolamons - wooden vessels for carrying food, water and other materials. Gyrocarpus even appears in Indigenous Dreaming traditions, where a tree can represent an ancestral coolamon.

Elsewhere in the Pacific, its lightweight wood was used for canoes and traditional objects.
Not bad for a tree called Shitwood!

🚁 And then there's that smell

You don't have to wait for flowers.
Our young plants haven't bloomed yet, but the leaves themselves already have a strong, distinctive odor when handled or crushed. Historical Pacific descriptions even compare the foliage smell to garlic. Mature flowers reportedly add their own strong scent.
Stinkwood, apparently, earned its name.

🚁 A giant tree that makes a great bonsai

In nature, Gyrocarpus americanus can eventually become a substantial deciduous tree. But young plants have another talent:
They make fantastic bonsai.
The smooth pale trunk develops character quickly, with open architectural branching and unusual lobed leaves. With pruning and shaping, even a young plant can look like a strange miniature ancient tree.

And this isn't just another pretty bonsai.
It's a tree from Thailand with smelly leaves, ancient cultural history, lightweight wood once used for vessels and canoes - and fruits that fly like helicopters.

Weird name. Weird smell. Flying seeds. Great bonsai.
What more could a plant collector ask for?

🛒 I Need This Weird Tree!

📚 Learn more

· Gyrocarpus americanus in Plant Encyclopedia
· Green in July, Variegated in January: Red-Stem Serissa 
· Gout Plant - the Ultimate Natural Bonsai
· Coral-blooming bonsai with a bottle-shaped trunk - perfect container plant
· Why in Thailand Wrightia religiosa is near all temples and homes
· Surprising Miniature Gardenia
· The crown of thorns with no thorns!
· How to make bonsai with Shaving Brush Tree
· Half-n-Half Parrot's Beak
· Ponytail Palm - The Quirky Plant with a Big Personality
· How to grow Bougainvillea bonsai
· Adog poo is a beauty from Argentina

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