Gumhar

Allied to Gmelina asiatica but differs in having erect inflorescences and larger leaves.

A rare plant in our area. Roots, bark and seeds sometimes used medicinally; timber is used for ornamental works. It is also cultivated as a decorative tree in gardens and Avenues.

Trees ca. 15 m tall; bark grayish brown; branchlets, petioles, and inflorescences densely yellow-brown tomentose. Branchlets slightly 4-angled when young, becoming terete, lenticellate, leaf scars prominent. Petiole terete, 3.5-10 cm; leaf blade broadly ovate, 8-19 X 4.5-15 cm, thickly papery, base broadly cuneate to subcordate, apex acuminate; veins 3-5 pairs, abaxially prominent. Inflorescences terminal, narrow thyrses; peduncle 15-30 cm. Calyx 3-5 mm, with several black discoid gland patches; teeth 5, sharply triangular. Corolla yellow, 3-4 cm, 2-lipped, sparsely glandular; lower lip 3-lobed, outside yellowish brown puberulent, inside glabrous; upper lip entire or slightly 2-cleft. Ovary glabrous, glandular. Stigma unequally 2-cleft. Drupes yellow when ripe and black when dry, ellipsoid to obovoid-ellipsoid, 1.5-2 cm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jul.

Unarmed tree, up to 20 m tall, with yellowish-tomentose young shoots. Leaves broadly ovate, long acuminate, 10-20 cm long, 7-13 cm broad, entire, glabrous above, hairy on the nerves beneath; petiole 5-12 cm long, glabrous, glandular near the lamina. Cymes terminal, paniculately arranged in the axlis of linear-lanceolate bracts. Flowers large, brownish-yellow. Corolla-tube densely pubescent outside, obliquely funnel-shaped. Drupe obovoid, 2-2.5 cm long, orange-yellow, glabrous.

Himalaya (Nepal to Bhutan), India, Ceylon, Philippines.

S Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam]

Distribution: S.E. Asia, India, Nepal, Bangla Desh, Srilanka, Pakistan and trop. Africa.

200-1100 m

Fl. Per.: January-April.

Open forests along roadsides and near farm houses; below 1500 m.