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Common Sterculia
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Common Sterculia
D Native Photo: Akshay Surendra
Common name: Common Sterculia, Kelumpang
Botanical name: Sterculia parviflora    Family: Sterculiaceae (Cacao family)
Synonyms: Sterculia obscura, Sterculia maingayi, Sterculia holttumii

Common Sterculia is a deciduous tree up to 25 m tall. The primary branching is whorled. The young shoots are finely brown and scurfy. The leaves have a long leaf-stalk up to 10 cm, has a slight heart-shaped base, and a somewhat variable shape from elliptic, oblong to obovate. Flowers are small, pale yellow with pink sepal-cup, in drooping racemes in leaf-axils or at branch-ends. Flowers are without petals, urn-shaped sepal-cup with 5 lanceshaped, pale yellow sepals curved inwards and spreading outwards after anthesis, stamens 10, joined into a column with anthers at the top. The fruit pods are very large, velvety and change from yellow to orange-red. Common Sterculia is a hardy tree tolerant of urban conditions, and such cultivated trees are able to produce fruits within 4-5 years. Seeds are cooked and eaten. It is native to Andaman & Nicobar Is., Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, Malaya, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam.

Identification credit: Akshay Surendra Photographed in Middle Andaman and Baratang, Andaman & Nicobar.

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