50 Sterculia urens.Indian-tragacanth, gum karaya, Indian gum tragacanth

Sterculia urens.Indian-tragacanth, gum karaya, Indian gum tragacanth

Botanic description Sterculia urens is a medium-sized, deciduous tree to 15 m in height, usually with a clean, crooked, short bole up to 2 m DBH; branches large, spreading; bark thick, greyish-white or reddish, smooth, shining with a thin, white transparent outer coat, peeling off in papery flakes. Leaves on long petioles, crowded at the ends of branches, palmately 5-lobed, 20-30 cm diameter; tomentose beneath, glabrous above, entire, acuminate; stipules caducous. Flowers greenish yellow, small, in terminal panicles; follicles 4-6, ovoid-oblong, about 2.5 cm diameter, coriaceous, red, covered with stinging hairs. Fruit consists of 5 sessile, radiating, ovate-lanceolate hard, coriaceous carpels, 7.5 cm long, red when ripe, covered outside with many stiff bristles. Seeds 6 mm long, oblong, dark chestnut-brown, 3-6 per carpel. The generic name is based on the Latin name ‘stercus’, meaning ‘manure’, which refers to the smell of the flowers and leaves of some species. The specific name means stinging in reference to the hairs on flowers. Ecology and distribution