Sterculia foetida - Vitkhadirah

Vitkhadirah, Sterculia foetida

Vitkhadirah, is a tall tree with digitate leaves and large woody pods. The seeds are edible and also used to make oil.

Uses

Rheumatism, Gonorrhoea

Common names

Language	Common name
Kannada	baethaalada mara, basavana goota
Hindi	jangli-badam
Malayalam	pinari, pottakavalam
Tamil	atikanari, attirappidukkan, cutiram, cutiramaram
Telugu	gurapa, gurapubadam, gurrapubaadamu
Marathi	NA
Gujarathi	NA
Punjabi	NA
Kashmiri	NA
Sanskrit	putidaru, vitkhadirah
English	Java Olive

Properties

Reference: Dravya - Substance, Rasa - Taste, Guna - Qualities, Veerya - Potency, Vipaka - Post-digesion effect, Karma - Pharmacological activity, Prabhava - Therepeutics.

Habit

Tree

Identification

Leaf

Kind	Shape	Feature
Palmately compound	alternate	clustered at the end of branchlets; stipules free, lateral, deciduous; rachis 8-24 cm long, slender, glabrous, swollen at base; leaflets 3-9; petiolule to 3 mm; lamina 5.5-14 x 2-5 cm, elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic oblanceolate, base cuneate, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 10-24, parallel, close, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, slender, prominent.

Flower

Type	Size	Color and composition	Stamen	More information
Unisexual or Polygamous	axillary spiciform racemes	Orange red	10	in axillary or terminal racemes, foetid smell; calyx dull orange red, deeply 5-partite, glabrous out side, 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

Type	Size	Mass	Appearance	Seeds	More information
Aggregate of follicles		of 1-5, scarlet, boat shaped, 5-lobed, woody, glabrous; seeds black, numerous, ellipsoid, smooth, with a small yellow aril.		{{{5}}}	{{{6}}}

Mode of Propagation

Seeds

Commonly seen growing in areas

Tropical area.

Photo Gallery

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

External Links

• http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Sterculia+foetida
• http://www.worldagroforestry.org/treedb/AFTPDFS/Sterculia_foetida.PDF