Garcinia indica

• Botanical Name : Garcinia indica (Thouars) Choisy
• Synonyms : Garcinia purpurea Roxb.
• Common Name : Kokam, Goa Butter Tree, Kokum Butter Tree
• Plant Family : Clusiaceae
• Plant Form : Tree
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park

About Garcinia indica Plant :

• Habit : A tall slender tree with drooping branches.
• Leaves : Ovate or oblong-lanceolate, acute, glabrous, dark-green above, pale below, red when young.
• Flowers :
  • Male flowers terminal and axillary, 4-8 fascicled.
  • Sepals 4, fleshy.
  • Petals 4, thick, longer than sepals.
  • Stamens 10-40, on a short column, filaments short.
  • Female flowers solitary, terminal and axillary, stoutly peduncled staminodes in 4 masses, each of 4-7, in one or more rows.
  • Ovary 4-8-celled, stigma sessile, 4-8 lobed.
• Fruit :
  • Globose, size of a small orange, berry, become purple colour when ripes.
  • Seeds 5-8, large.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : November - February
• Significance :
  • The ripe fruit is edible.
  • The seeds yield the well-known oil or butter-called very useful for healing chaps on the body.