Careya arborea Roxb.

Type
Indigenous
Family
Lecythidaceae
Local Name
Pezhu
Local Name 2
Aalam
Habit
Small sized tree
Botanical Features

Deciduous trees, to 12 m high, bark 10-12 mm thick, brownish, rough, exfoliations small, more or less triangular; fibrous; blaze reddish-brown, stratified; branchlets pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate, clustered at the tips of branchlets; petiole 10 mm long, slender, pubescent; lamina 15-30 x 5-15 cm, obovate, oblong-obovate, base cuneate or attenuate and decurrent on petiole, apex round or shortly acuminate, margin crenate-serrate, glabrous, membranous; lateral nerves 10-12 pairs, parallel, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, greenish-white,, 5-10 mm across, in terminal spikes; peduncle woody; bracts 3, unequal; calyx tube campanulate, glabrous, adnate to ovary and not produced beyond the ovary; lobes 4, ovate, imbricate; petals 4, elliptic-oblong, revolute along margin, cauducous; disc annular; stamens numerous in several rows, slightly connate at base, inserted on the top of calyx; filaments subulate, purple, exserted, inner and outer rows without anthers; ovary inferior, 4-5-celled, ovules many in each cell; style long, filiform; stigma capitate. Fruit a berry, 5-7.5 cm across, globose, green, pericarp fibrous, crowned with sepals and style.

Habit
Leaf
Flower
Fruit