It’s bad luck for Burutha

By Ruk Rakaganno, The Tree Society of Sri Lanka

The Satinwood or Burutha is a large tree growing upto 30 m. The tree has a characteristically grayish green appearance and feathery crown. The leaves of the Burutha are pinnate and made up of small leaflets which are grayish green. When crushed these leaflets are aromatic. The tree is deciduous. The new leaves are pale green while the old are yellow. The leaves are shed during February and March.

The bark of the Burutha is furrowed and peels. The young wood is gray. The flowers which are white and small with furry petals appear usually when the tree has shed its leaves in May or earlier in the year. The fruits are black oblong capsules. The wood is hard and heavy and when polished has a lustrous, satiny, honey coloured grain. It is prized for making furniture and also for building purposes.

A Burutha tree at the Popham Arboretum

The Burutha is found in monsoon and intermediate forests. Indigenous to Sri Lanka, it was once fairly common in our dry zone forests. Traditionally it was believed that to have furniture of Burutha brought bad luck and thus its use was restricted. It was often used in association with other timbers.

However, these beliefs appear to have been ignored in the last century and it has been indiscriminately cut for the valuable timber it yields. Today, therefore a Burutha tree is no longer a common sight in our forests.

The Banded Peacock, a Swallowtail butterfly, lays its eggs only on the leaves of the Burutha. The drop in the number of Burutha trees has affected the population of Banded Peacocks and this species is now considered threatened in Sri Lanka.

The Burutha is known in Tamil as Mutirai and the scientific name is Chloroxylon swietenia. Look out for it in the forests of the dry zone.

The IFS-Popham Arboretum, Dambulla has some particularly fine specimens and a grove of Burutha trees since the Burutha was the favourite tree and icon of the creator of the Arboretum, Sam Popham.