The person who gave us this tree didn't know what it was, and their best guess was "some kind of Thai herb". That might be completely wrong. It doesn't smell like much yet, but I haven't tried crushing one of those bright red seed pods. Any ideas? Keenan
I think it's probably as Sundrop suggests. The tender young shoots are used in Thai salads and are regarded as medicinal by the Thais.
You could say the same about chillies, and what could be more Thai than those? I suspect Leucaena, following its introduction to Asia, was adoped into Thai cuisine because of its resemblance to other mimosaceous species, e.g. Acacia pennata ('cha-om').
It looks like to me, the person the OP got the plant from confused it with Accacia pennata which could be called a "Thai herb" since it is native to South Asia and commonly used in a variety of ways in Thai cuisine.
Sundrop: Leucaena is a well established part of Thai cuisine, known as 'phak krathin', and used in rather different ways from 'cha om', Acacia pennata. Bunches of the leaves or pods can be found in almost any roadside fresh food market in Thailand. You will find them both in this Wikipedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Thai_ingredients. My hypothesis - that "Leucaena, following its introduction to Asia, was adopted into Thai cuisine because of its resemblance to other mimosaceous species, e.g. Acacia pennata ('cha-om')" - was in reference to its original introduction, which is thought to have been hundreds of years ago.
