Where teak grows in India

Teak grows wild mainly in the dry and moist deciduous forests of peninsular and central India, and it is planted far beyond that range. Kew's World Checklist (read via GBIF) gives its native range as India, Assam, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, and lists Sri Lanka, Java and the Andaman Islands among the many places where it was introduced. A species sheet written by Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) scientists for the APFORGEN programme says India holds about one-third of teak's natural range, scattered through the peninsula below roughly 24°N, in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

A chapter in an FAO teak seminar volume puts the northern edge of this zone at the western Aravallis of Rajasthan, and names Hoshangabad–Betul (Madhya Pradesh), Chanda and Melghat (Maharashtra), Wayanad (Kerala), the Anamalai hills (Tamil Nadu) and North Kanara (Karnataka) as the most important natural teak forests.

Teak in Rajasthan

Rajasthan has natural teak, but only in the south. A 1962 paper in the Indian Forester describes degraded teak forests in the southern parts of the state that needed careful tending, and secondary geography study guides place these dry teak forests in hill districts such as Banswara, Dungarpur and Udaipur. This is the northern limit of wild teak in India, so do not expect the giant trees of Kerala here (our note). The dry west of Rajasthan is a different matter: ICRAF gives a usual rainfall range of 1,200–2,500 mm a year, and notes that it grows with roughly 600 mm of rain a year in northern Togo, at the very low end of its range. In the Thar, teak will not do well without regular watering (our assessment).

What it needs

ICRAF describes teak as a tree of warm climates with a clear wet and dry season, growing from sea level to about 1,200 m, with a mean annual temperature of roughly 14–36 °C. Its best soil is deep, well-drained and fertile, with a pH of about 6.5–8, and it does not tolerate waterlogging or poor lateritic soil. The TNAU forestry portal prefers well-drained sandy loam with a pH of 6–7, not above 8.5.

How it suits each part of India (our assessment, from the ranges above):

• Grows well: central India, the Deccan plateau, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the hills of southern Rajasthan, which are inside or close to its wild range; also the north-east, which Kew includes in its native range.
• With care: the northern plains and the east, where it is widely planted. Choose deep, well-drained soil, and expect slower growth where winters are cold (our assessment).
• Not suitable: the Thar desert without irrigation, the Himalaya above about 1,200 m (the upper limit ICRAF gives), and any low land where water stands for days.

How to recognise teak

Teak is easiest to recognise by its leaves: the KFRI sheet describes them as broadly oval, roughly 15–60 cm long and 12–35 cm wide, with smooth edges, set in opposite pairs, each pair at right angles to the next. ICRAF adds that they are hairy underneath.

• Flowers: tiny (about 0.7–0.9 cm), white or cream, in large, loose clusters at the tips of the branches; the KFRI sheet gives these clusters as up to about 50 cm long. Flowers of India says they appear during the monsoon.
• Fruit: a hard, roundish fruit of about 2 cm, wrapped in a thin, papery, balloon-like cover that helps the wind carry it (KFRI). Flowers of India says the fruit ripens in winter.
• Bark: light brown or grey, thin, with shallow lengthwise furrows, flaking off in narrow vertical strips (KFRI).
• Shape: a straight trunk, often fluted and slightly buttressed at the base when old, with an open crown. In the dry season the tree is bare; Flowers of India gives November to January as the leafless months, but this varies with the climate.

A look-alike to check: gamhar (Gmelina arborea), another large-leaved timber tree of the same family, is planted in many of the same areas. Flowers of India describes gamhar's flowers as trumpet-shaped, yellow tinged with brown and 3–4 cm long, opening in February–April when the tree is nearly bare. Teak's flowers are tiny, white and come in the rains, and its fruit sits in a papery bladder.