Sterculia guttata Roxb. ex DC. (STERCULIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Jenu kathala, Hulitaradu mara.
Malayalam: Kithondi, Kavalam.
Tamil: Kavali, Thondi.
Description: Trees, up to 20 m tall; bark much cracked, ash coloured, inner fibrous, rough with warts outside; young shoots clothed with stellate-tomentum. Leaves alternate, ovate-oblong, ovate-elliptic or obovate, up to 25 x 15 cm, subcordate, rounded or subtruncate at base, acute or abruptly shortly acuminate at apex, rusty stellate-pubescent beneath; petioles up to 5 cm long. Flowers in up to 15 cm long rusty tomentose panicles, brownish yellow. Calyx 5-lobed, densely pubescent outside, clothed with stellate hairs within. Corolla absent. Male flowers: anthers 10-15, Female flowers: Ovaries on gynophore, hairy with sterile anthers at base, style on staminal column curved; stigmas 5-lobed. The follicles, numbering 2-5, are obovoid and reach dimensions of up to 12 x 5 cm. They are compressed, obscurely ribbed, and covered in brown tomentum, displaying a pink interior and a red exterior. Each follicle contains 3-4 seeds, oblong in shape, measuring up to 15 x 7 mm, and adorned with stiff, ferruginous hairs, appearing black.
Flowering : September – May.
Fruiting: February- August.
Distribution: India: In evergreen forests of Western Ghats up to 1200 m. Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andaman Islands. Sri Lanka and Malesia.
Uses: The seeds are roasted and eaten.