Tropical Almond

Planted as a shade tree, the bark contains tannin which is used as astringent and for colouring leather. Fruit is edible.

The fruit is edible.

A large deciduous tree, up to 35 m tall with brownish dotted bark. Young branches rusty pubescent becoming glabrous with age. Leaves crowded at the end of branches in spiral form, glabrous and shining above, velvety hairy below, obovate, shortly acuminate or mucronate with a cordate base, 5.5-35 x 5-18 cm, petiole densly hairy, 5-15 mm long with 2 glands on either side at the apex. Spikes axillary, 6-16 cm long with hairy rachis. Upper flowers of the spike male, lower bisexual, whitish yellow; bract c. 1 mm long, caducous. hypanthium 3-7 mm long scarious or glabrous, calyx lobes triangular, 1-2 mm long, glabrous. Stamens 2-2.5 mm ong, situated on the calyx. Style elongated, up to 2 mm long. Discbarbate. Drupe ovoid, glabrous more or less laterally compressed, wings almost obscure, 3.5 x 2-5.5 cm.

Trees to 20 m tall; trunk to 2 m d.b.h. Bark brownish black, longitudinally peeling. Branches spreading, forming tiers. Branchlets densely brownish yellow tomentose near apex, densely covered with conspicuous leaf scars. Leaves alternate, crowded into pseudowhorls at apices of branchlets; petiole 0.5-2 cm, stout, tomentose; leaf blade obovate to oblanceolate, narrowed in proximal half, 12-30 × 8-15 cm, both surfaces glabrous or abaxially sparsely softly hairy when young, base narrow, cordate or truncate, apex obtuse or mucronate; lateral veins in 10-12 pairs. Inflorescences axillary, simple, long, slender spikes, 15-20 cm, numerous flowered; axis shortly white tomentose. Flowers fragrant. Calyx tube distally cupular, 7-8 mm, abaxially white tomentose, densely so on ovary, sparsely so on cupular part, adaxially glabrous; lobes 5. Stamens 10, exserted, 2-3 mm. Fruit not stipitate, red or blackish green when ripe, ellipsoid, slightly to strongly compressed, strongly 2-ridged to narrowly 2-winged (wings to 3 mm wide), 3-5.5 × 2-3.5 cm, glabrous; pericarp woody, rigid. Fl. Mar-Jun, Oct, fr. May, Jul-Sep.

Eastern tropical coasts, sometimes planted. We owe to Murata the single record of this seashore species from Nepal.

Distribution: Tropical Asia, N.Australia and Polynesia, cultivated in Pakistan

1000 m

Fl. Per.: June-September.

Sandy seashores, beaches with humid climate, villages, grassy village commons, also cultivated as a roadside tree. Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan (including Lan Yu), SE Yunnan [Bangladesh, Cambodia, India (including Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; N Australia, Indian Ocean islands, Madagascar, Pacific islands; planted throughout the tropics as a shade tree].

Badamia commersonii Gaertner; Juglans catappa (Linnaeus) Loureiro; Myrobalanus catappa (Linnaeus) Kuntze; Terminalia catappa var. chlorocarpa Hasskarl; T. catappa var. macrocarpa Hasskarl; T. catappa var. rhodocarpa Hasskarl; T. catappa var. subcordata (Humboldt & Bonpland ex Willdenow) Candolle; T. intermedia Bertero ex Sprengel; T. latifolia Blanco (1837), not Swartz (1788); T. moluccana Lamarck; T. myrobalana Roth; T. ovatifolia Noronha; T. paraensis Martius; T. procera Roxburgh; T. rubrigemmis Tulasne; T. subcordata Humboldt & Bonpland ex Willdenow.