Nance is a tree 4-13 m tall, up to 30 cm bole
diameter, bark fissured and warty; wood dull reddish-brown, hard,
heavy; younger parts densely downy-woolly (sparsely on upper leaf
surface and becoming glabrate); stems bearing prominent leaf scars.
Leaf-stalks are about 1 cm long, stout; blades obovate to elliptic or
ovate, tapering, narrowed to an pointed or blunt base, 7-14 cm long,
3-8 cm wide, densely pubescent below becoming hairless. Flowers are
borne in false-racemes at branch-ends, usually solitary, up to 20 cm
long. Flower-stalks are up to 1.5 cm long; flowers many, yellow,
becoming red-orange in age; sepals each bearing 2 prominent glands,
blunt, recurved, hairless inside. Petals are clawed, 1.0-1.3 cm long,
the blade round, often concave, equaling length of claw, the margin
irregular, 1 petal often smaller and held somewhat erect, the others
spreading to reflexed. Stamens are 10, 4-5 mm long, styles 3, distinct,
slender, longer than stamens, persisting on young fruits. Drupes are
spherical, 1-1.5 cm in across, green turning yellow to reddish. Nance
is native to tropical America, cultivated elsewhere.
Identification credit: S. Kasim
Photographed in Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bangaluru.
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The flower labeled Nance is ...