Sterculia urens Roxb. (STERCULIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Bhutali, Kempudale.
Malayalam: Thondi.
Tamil: Kavalam, Senthanaku, Vellaippulali.
Telugu: Tabsu.
Description: The trees can reach heights of up to 15 meters, with young parts exhibiting varying degrees of pubescence. The bark is white, smooth, with an outer layer that peels off in papery sheets, revealing an inner fibrous texture. Leaves alternate, crowded at the ends of the branchlets, digitately 3-5 lobes, up to 20 x 20 cm, cordate at base, caudate-acuminate at apex, grey beneath; petioles up to 9.5 cm long. Flowers small, male and female mixed in much branched, glandular-pubescent terminal panicles, appearing before the leaves at the ends of branchlets, yellow. Calyx companulate, 5-lobed, glandular hairy lobes inside at base. Petals absent. Male flowers: anthers 10-15 at the top of staminal column. Female flowers: ovaries on gynophores with sterile anthers at base; styles curved; stigmas 5-lobed. Follicles 5, oblong or ovoid-oblong, up to 4 x 1.5 cm, red when young, densely pubescent, often mixed with stinging hairs. Seeds 3-6 in each follicle, oblong, ca 7 x 5 mm, black, glossy.
Flowering : October – March.
Fruiting : February – April.
Distribution: India: Almost throughout except Himalayas. Sri Lanka and Malesia.
Uses: Seeds are roasted and eaten. Gum called “Katila” is substitute for tragacanth, used in throat affections; Leaf and tender branches are used in pleuropneumonia in cattle.