Cassia Fistula - Synonyms

Synonyms

The golden shower tree was named Cassia fistula by Carl Linnaeus. Being so conspicuous and widely planted, this tree has a number of common names. In English, it is also known as the golden shower cassia. Other names include Indian laburnum or golden shower. It is known in Spanish-speaking countries as caña fistula.

Names from its native range and surrounding regions include:

• Arabic: khiār shambar (خيار شمبر)
• Assamese: xonaru (সোণাৰু)
• Bengali: sonalu, bandar lathi, amaltas
• Chinese: ā bó lè (阿勃勒: Taiwan), là cháng shù (sausage tree, 腊肠树)
• Gujarati : garmalo (ગરમાળો)
• Hindi: bendra lathi (or bandarlauri), dhanbaher (or dhanbohar), girimaloah
• Hindi and Urdu: amaltās (अमलतास)
• Japanese: nanban saikachi (ナンバン サイカチ, Kanji: 南蛮皀莢)
• Khmer: reachapreuk (រាជព្រឹក្ស - rajavriksha)
• Kannada: Kakke (ಕಕ್ಕೆ ಮರ)
• Lao: khoun (ຄູນ)
• Marathi: bahava (बहावा)
• Malayalam: kanikkonna (or kani konna കണിക്കൊന്ന: Kerala), Vishu konna(വിഷുക്കൊന്ന)
• Meitei (Manipuri): chahui
• Nepali: amaltash, rajbriksya
• Sanskrit: aragvadha, chaturangula, kritamala, suvarnaka
• Sinhalese: aehaela, ඇහැල (or ahalla), Ehela
• Tamil: konrai (கொன்றை)
• Telugu:raela (రేల)
• Thai: rachapruek (ราชพฤกษ์), khun (คูน), dok khuen (ดอกแคน)

The name was erroneously used by John Patrick Micklethwait Brenan for the Kenyan shower cassia, correctly known as C. afrofistula. Similarly, Francisco Manuel Blanco misapplied Linnaeus's name to the apple-blossom cassia subspecies C. javanica ssp. javanica.