Sterculia foetida L. | |
Malvaceae | |
Kutiraippitukku | |
| Botanical Name | Sterculia foetida L. |
| Synonyms | Clompanus foetida. (L.) Kuntze, Sterculia polyphylla R. Br. |
| Family | Malvaceae |
| Common Name | English : Indian Almond / Tamil : Kutiraippitukku |
| Distribution | Global : Southern India , Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh. Indian : Assam, Kerala, Tamilnadu |
| Description | Deciduous trees up to 25 m height, bole buttressed; bark grey, smooth, irregularly flaking off in thin scales, blaze reddish-yellow, branches horizontal, whorled. Leaves palmately compound, alternate, clustered at the end of branchlets; stipules free, lateral, deciduous. swollen at base, leaflets 3-9, lamina elliptic-lanceolate, base cuneate, apex acuminate, margin entire, coriaceous. Inflorescence racemes. Flowers unisexual or polygamous, dull-orange red, in axillary or terminal racemes, foetid smell, calyx dull orange red, deeply 5-partite, glabrous outside, woolly inside; petals absent. Male flowers - staminal column curved, hairy at base, bearing 10-15 anthers at its tip. Female flowers - ovary 5, free, superior, downy, each with 20 ovules, gynophore stout, styles deflexed, hairy, staminodes subsessile in a ring beneath the carpels. Fruit an aggregate of follicle of 1-5, scarlet, boat shaped, 5-lobed, woody, glabrous; seeds black, numerous, ellipsoid, smooth, with a small yellow aril. |
| Flowering Fruiting period | February-August |
| Uses | The wood is suitable for construction, flooring, joinery, paper making, soap making. |
| Medicinal Uses | Laxative, diuretic, anti-epileptic, and insect repellent. Its seed oil is used externally to treat itches and other skin diseases. |
| Tamil Name | Kutiraippitukku |