[New Latin Ailanthus, genus name coined (perhaps with influence from Greek anthos, flower) by French botanist René Louiche Desfontaines (1750-1833) from a source in one of the Malayo-Polynesian languages of the coast and islands of Piru Bay, Seram, such as ai lanit, (term used on the south Seram coast), literally "sky tree," the tall tropical Asian tree tree Ailanthus integrifolia : ai, tree (from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *kahiw; see CAJEPUT) + lanit, sky (akin to Malay langit, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *laŋit, of Proto-Austronesian origin).]