Saraca indica (PROSEA)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Introduction |
- Family: Leguminosae
Synonyms
- Saraca bijuga Prain,
- Saraca harmandiana Pierre.
- Saraca kunstleri Prain,
- Saraca minor (Zoll. & Moritzi) Miq.
Vernacular names
- Malayan saraca (En)
- Indonesia: soko (Javanese)
- Laos: 'si 'soup
- Thailand: chum saeng nam (peninsular), sok (central), som suk (northern)
- Vietnam: vàng anh ấn.
Distribution
Indo-China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Java; often planted for ornamental purposes.
Uses
Young leaves and flowers (sourish) are edible. Sacred ornamental tree for Buddhists and Hindus, being the tree under which Buddha was born.
Observations
- Tree, 10-20 m tall.
- Leaves paripinnate, rachis 10-50 cm long, pink or purple when young; leaflets in 1-7 pairs, elliptical-ovate to lanceolate, 5-30 cm × 1.5-10 cm.
- Flowers fragrant, yellow to orange-red, in 3-15 cm long corymbs; sepals 4, ovate-oblong, 5-12 mm × 2-7 mm; petals absent; stamens 6-8.
Often along streams in forests and cultivated as ornamental. Flowering is in February, fruiting in May in continental South-East Asia.
Selected sources
7, 20, 27, 33, 84.