Sterculia foetida

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Photographs by: Dr. Maulik Gadani

Botanical Name : Sterculia foetida L.
The name is derived from two latin words - Stercus meaning 'dung' and foetida meaning 'stinking'.
Common Name : Jangly Badam, Bastard, Poon Tree
Common Name Details :
Plant Family : Sterculiaceae
Plant Form : Tree
Occurrence (Sectors) : 9, 11

Habit : A large tree.
Stem : Erect, branched, cylindrical and solid with dark white, whorled, horizontal branches.
Leaves : Compound digitate, leaflets elliptic-lanceolate, stipules, caducous.
Inflorescence : Racemose panicles.
Flowers :
- Dull-red, foetid, having foul smell which attracts flies for pollination.
- Calyx tubular, deply 5-cleft.
- Petals absent.
- Male flowers are produced in great profusion and drop off. Staminal column curved, hairy at base and with 10-15 anthers. Corolline cup irregularly toothed, within the cup are 5 rudimentary carpels.
- Female flowers are few and are found at the ends of the racemes, ovary of 5 hairy carpels on a stout gynophore, with a ring of staminodes, style hairy bent.
Fruit : Etaerio of 1-5 woody, scarlet, large, boat-shaped follicles.
Seeds : Many, black, smooth, exalbuminous, with a small, yellow caruncle at the base.
Flowering and Fruiting time :March-May.
Significance :
- Cultivated in the gardens.
- The fruits possess sweet oily edible pulp. The seeds are eaten raw or roasted but if consumed in large quantities, they cause dysentery.
- The tree exudes a gum resembling tragacanth which is used for book binding and similar work.