Malvaceae week 0905-9112011 UD 023 Kleinhovia hospita

[ushadi Micromini]

Malvaceae week 0905-9112011 UD 023 Kleinhovia hospita 

Dear All:

Malvaceae week 0905 9112011 UD 23 Kleihovia hospita

Family              Malvaceae

Subfamily :            Sterculiaceae

Genus:                             Kleinhovia

Species:                                  K. hospita

Binomial name                              Kleinhovia hospital  L. 

 

I first discovered this native of SE asia in the Horticulture garden.. hort as we  kids called it… it used to be the edge   of the carriage drive, now a black topped car park…  it was small them.. now its almost 50 feet tall..    if I want a full photo I would need to stitch at least 3 frames… phew.. so I ‘ll just show you the top third to so and absolute bottom….  To heck with the middle… J…

 

Flower buds  are very small about 7 to 8  mm long… when open they are about a cm in diameter,  seed pods about 2-3 cms across, papery .. seeds inside  do not know much about them because the fallen pods do not seem to have anything inside … and have not torn any from the tree to tell you about.

 

The leaves are very large, the largest I have found on this tree were about 10 inches long and 9 inches across. 

The sprouts new shoots from it base…

This tree is somewhat popular in Kolkata for street planting… do not know if KMC is planting them or individual home owners plant a tree or two of their choice in front of their homes… they used to in decades past… do not know now…  it grows tall so not a shade tree ….

Not mentioned in Ayurveda or Ethnobotany of Bengal… so may not be well known yet.. but in SE asia it is used for killing lice , they apply leaf juice… has cyanogenic  properties…

 

Enjoy,

Usha di

[Balkar Arya]

Thanks Ushadi Ji for showing this new plant

--
Regards

Dr Balkar Singh
Head, Deptt. of Botany and Biotechnology
Arya P G College, Panipat
Haryana-132103
09416262964

[Satish Phadke]

I love those balloon like fruit pods.

[harithasandhya]

Thank you for sharing these pictures. I have seen a few of these big
trees in some of the public office compounds in Trivandrum. May be it
was planted during the British times.. It flowers profusely here.
Haven't yet looked for the seeds. Will keep a look out in future.
Regards,
Sandhya

>  1 Kleinhovia Hort 962011 DSC04865 (2) tree canopy sm.jpg
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>  3 Kleinhovia Hort 962011 DSC04865 (12) very large leaf seedpod to compare sm.jpg
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>  5 Kleinhovia Hort 962011 DSC04865 (4) seeds closer sm.jpg
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>  9 Kleinhovia in augt 002 FLOWERS a rare sight.jpg
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>  10 Kleinhovia tree seedpods and flowers 003 tree spouts at its own base.jpg
> 486KViewDownload