Common Name | Gum Karaya |
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Botanical Name | Sterculia urens |
Deciduous trees, up to 16 m tall; bark greenish, smooth. Petiole 15-30 cm; leaf blade cordate, palmately 3-5-lobed, 15-30 cm in diam., lobes triangular, both surfaces glabrous or minutely puberulent, basal veins 7, base cordate, apex acuminate.
Inflorescence paniculate, terminal, 20-50 cm. Calyx yellowish green, 7-9 mm, divided nearly to base, lobes linear, twisted outward, abaxially puberulent and yellowish, adaxially villous only basally; pedicel nearly as long as calyx.
Male flower: androgynophore as long as calyx, thicker in the lower part, glabrous. Anthers 15, irregularly fascicled, pistillode pear-shaped, and very small. Female flower: ovary globose, hairy. Follicle membranous, stalked, foliaceous, 6-11 × 1.5-2.5 cm, 2-4-seeded, abaxially puberulent, or nearly glabrous. Seeds globose, ca. 7 mm in diam., wrinkled. Fl. Jun. 2n = 40*.